Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan used yesterday’s earnings call to press Tim Cook on a fast-spreading investor worry: will AI-first gadgets eventually make screens—and therefore the iPhone—obsolete? Mohan cited voice pins, pocket assistants, and other screen-free devices that promise hands-free AI interactions and asked how quickly such form factors might dent Apple’s core product. Cook replied with a firm defence of the smartphone’s central role and a subtle hint that any future hardware Apple ships will complement, not replace, the iPhone.
Cook reminded listeners that the handset already handles an unmatched range of jobs, from private messaging and professional photography to secure payments and gaming. Then he added a direct assessment: “It’s difficult to see a world where iPhone’s not living in it, and that doesn’t mean we are not thinking about other things as well, but I think that the devices are likely to be complementary devices, not substitution.” His answer sets clear expectations that Apple is exploring new AI-centric hardware but sees those ideas as satellites in the ecosystem rather than heirs to the smartphone throne.
The numbers behind Apple’s quarter back up Cook’s confidence. iPhone revenue climbed thirteen per cent year-over-year to 44.6 billion dollars as the iPhone 16 Pro Max led a higher-storage mix. Nearly half of buyers came from devices four or more years old, underscoring that core phone demand remains resilient even while early AI wearables grab headlines. Cook emphasized that Apple Intelligence features already run on-device inside iPhone 16, delivering private text rewriting, image cleanup, and local translation without a cloud hand-off. Those capabilities will deepen when a personalized Siri arrives in 2026, further anchoring the handset as the hub for context-aware computing.
Cook shared during the same earnings call that iPhone 16 popularity has surpassed iPhone 15 with sales up “strong double digits”. Apple’s iOS 26 developer beta also topped Apple’s all-time adoption chart, which shows that user interest in iPhone is still on the upwards trend.
