On April 22, Reuters reported that Apple has built its business empire by relying on “control.” But in the AI ​​era, this advantage may become its shortcoming. For decades, Apple has built devices that are both secure and easy to use through a tightly managed ecosystem that includes in-house chips, a proprietary operating system and carefully selected apps.

This strategy has helped the iPhone become the most successful consumer product in history, generating nearly $210 billion in revenue last year. It also allowed Apple to remain the world's most valuable company for most of the past decade, until it was surpassed by AI chip maker Nvidia in 2024.

However, when new Apple CEO John Ternus takes over from Tim Cook this fall, he will face a key question about Apple's survival in the age of AI. The issue is testing the limits of Apple's longstanding approach of stringently selecting apps and services that can use its hardware.

AI needs to be open

The current wave of AI innovation is driven in large part by openness: rapid iteration, broad developer access, and tools that can run across platforms.

Companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta have released various models. These models sometimes evolve in unexpected directions, but they continue to improve significantly and attract developers and users at a rate that traditional product cycles struggle to match.

As expected, Apple remains cautious. As a loyal guardian of the vision of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Cook has always emphasized that only strict control can achieve privacy protection and product quality.

That restraint has earned Apple the trust of its users, but has also exposed the company to antitrust pressure in the United States and abroad, including a legal battle with Fortnite developer Epic Games and new European Union rules forcing Apple to allow more competition on its devices.

Ternus needs to choose between open and closed

With the development of AI, this contradiction has been further intensified, because the AI ​​craze tends to favor speed and experimentation.

"The selection of Ternus, the head of hardware, as CEO may mean that Apple still believes that the future of AI will run on highly integrated devices, not just software." said Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of management at the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

"This may be a smart move, but it also poses a deeper risk: If the next era values ​​openness and faster iteration, then the advantages that have allowed Apple to dominate, such as rigor, refinement and control, may become constraints. Apple started with rapid innovation, and maybe the company needs to return to that starting point."

OpenClaw is hot

From Jobs rescuing struggling Apple in the late 1990s to Cook turning Apple's services business into a growth engine with $110 billion in annual sales, Apple has proven that tight integration can lead to long-term customers and lasting profits.

Today, Ternus' biggest challenge will be integrating AI into Apple's almost airtight ecosystem as a more open model sweeps the world.

One example is OpenClaw, software that schedules large swarms of AI "agents" to perform complex tasks traditionally handled by humans. The software has become popular in China, with users ranging from primary school students to the elderly.

But OpenClaw also demonstrates the risks that openness brings. The software is still crude, has security vulnerabilities, and can take worrisome actions, including exposing private financial information on the open internet. The contradictions it exposes are exactly what Apple has been trying to avoid for a long time.

Ternus has made it clear in interviews with the media that Apple is more interested in launching products than raw technology that can attract attention like OpenClaw but cannot become an everyday necessity like the iPhone.

However, Apple has also shown some flexibility and will use AI technology developed by competitors when necessary. In January this year, Apple reached a cooperation with Google to use its Gemini model to improve the capabilities of its voice assistant Siri.

Learn from NVIDIA

Notre Dame’s Hubbard said Apple could also take a page from Nvidia’s playbook. Last month, Nvidia said it would transform open source software based on OpenClaw and launch a product called NemoClaw, adding security mechanisms and usage restrictions to enable it to run stably in a commercial environment.

Gene Munster, a long-time Apple analyst and investor at Deepwater Asset Management, said Ternus' focus on quality could help him change the narrative about Apple in the same way Cook did. Cook has proven by vigorously developing services business that Apple's financial destiny depends on more than just iPhone.

"Staying true to Apple's culture should allow Apple to move more aggressively into AI without significantly sacrificing quality," Munster wrote in a note to clients.