Google, Apple, and Microsoft are each in a stronger position to win consumer AI because they're guardians over the foundations of the user's experience. Meta always has to wonder whether they're going to be edged out, like when Apple decided to limit permissions or set new rules on user data handling.

How has Meta responded? With a failed phone and speculative headset.

▲

DwarvenEngineer 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's entirely why Zuck's been pushing VR and the metaverse for so long. they have no OS to control - Microsoft has desktop, Apple has their vertically integrated devices, Google has both Android and also Chrome.

Meta is at the whims of these other companies to play nice - and they already got hit hard once by apple when they decided to anonimize add profiles on the iphone and go privacy first.

	▲	alex1138 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Okay, so I've heard Apple "prioritized their own ads". If there's meat behind that - cool (and perhaps might not do anything about certain scummy listings on the app store) But app stores and iOS ostensibly exist exactly so Zuckerberg can't do what he does, which is steal credentials. Facebook syncs everything, bought Whatsapp to do the same; of course he's pissed off his ill-gotten moat got attacked

▲

mcintyre1994 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> How has Meta responded? With a failed phone and speculative headset.

I guess their spin on Muse would be, by building the AI agent that Apple has shown it's nowhere near being able to build

▲

threatofrain 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Apple responds by waiting and partnering with companies like Google, and treating this as a layer that can be swapped out.

▲

rolosa 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And their resulting product is just not good.

▲

33d 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You dont understand Apple's operations.

They will 'appear' to care about this stuff to appease shareholders.

They only dedicate the best but small amount of resource and then scale once they are confident they have a 'hot' product.

Get over it guys, stop whining about Siri and understand how Apple operates.

They have everything to lose - they are THE TRUSTED brand when it comes to consumer electronics w.r.t being an incredibly valuable firm.

	▲	vineyardmike 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Get over it guys, stop whining about Siri and understand how Apple operates. Doesn’t make it a good product though.

▲

theplumber 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Apple didn’t figure out yet that Google’s AI performance is nothing like Google search. Google’s AI is just junk, worse than open Chinese models. If someone (Facebook,OpenAI) gets a hold on the “killer” app, Apple won’t be able to do anything to truly compete. They will be late and end up with a social network like “find my friends” or whatever that useless thing was that nobody used.

▲

cloverich an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Until Opus 5.5 I agreed with this. But since then... I'm now able to build just about anything I want, quickly. Including... all the reasons I'm on a mac (or presumably, one on windows) in the first place. IDK if I believe in my heart just yet, but as a long time mac user, if you gave me the choice between mac + commodity model or a near naked Linux laptop + Opus 5.5, I would easily choose Opus 5.5 and build what I want. If this is real, I think Google is still in a good spot, but are Apple and Microsoft? They have no models themselves. They do have hardware but the value of their OS (in Apples case) and software (in MS case) becomes extremely devalued, relatively speaking.

▲

skohan 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Being one of if not the top advertisers in the world? I think Meta is doing just fine.

	▲	jimbokun 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure but that doesn't mean they will become the front runner in AI.

▲

solyin 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Muse, the pi/openclaw/AI assistant app is maybe not impressive to HN, because you can always just "get an FTP account", as it were, but if you're outside of the HN bubble and don't hate Facebook, Muse is an absolute winner. It's currently the top downloaded app on iOS, above ChatGPT, TikTok, and Claude. I think they've currently got the strongest consumer AI play but we'll have to wait and see how the situation evolves.

▲

lp92 3 hours ago | parent [-]

>It's currently the top downloaded app on iOS,

Yeah because its gone a bit viral. It'll settle down over time as people try it and dispose of it.

	▲	alex1138 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Same as Threads

▲

nisegami 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Google, Apple, and Microsoft are each in a stronger position to win consumer AI because they're guardians over the foundations of the user's experience.

From everything I've seen, they're all too large and dysfunctional to make a competent play in consumer AI. Anyone in there trying to work on it is too far removed from end product and is answering to too many masters.

▲

htrp 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That's definitely gemini

	▲	nisegami 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		At least Gemini is an okay model independent of how Google is leveraging for consumer experiences.

▲

logicchains 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>Google, Apple, and Microsoft are each in a stronger position to win consumer AI

Microsoft has completely lost the ability to make good software; see Microsoft Teams and what they've done to Windows 11. Apple don't have a foundation models team so they're limited to using other people's models, which handicaps them as they can't do vertical integration like with their other products. Google hasn't made a single competitive consumer product in the past decade, but has certainly killed a few.

	▲	Kurtz79 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		"Microsoft has completely lost the ability to make good software; see Microsoft Teams and what they've done to Windows 11." Uh, what is your positive comparison point? I have been using MS apps since MS-DOS 6.0 and Windows 3.1 (including doozies like Windows Millennium and Vista) and Teams and W11 are some of most stable, "it just works" pieces of software coming from them I can think of...
	▲	novaRom 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Microsoft has completely lost the ability to make good software did they ever? maybe MS DOS, Win 3.1, and Win2000 were ok, although PC DOS and OS/2 were better; Sure what an unusable junk it's today is beyond any precedent in history, but why many companies use it today at all? why?