OpenAI Reportedly Working on an AI Smartphone to Rival iPhone
macrumors.comThis fails the very basic test of "who actually wants your product to succeed other than you".
It's like when Microsoft was like "we want the Xbox to be the center of a connected home entertainment experience" (it was something like this but I don't exactly remember the dumb phrasing). That's cool I guess, but nobody cares about you succeeding in your strategy and they are the one who have to buy it.
I ignored that aspect of it too. But when I realized my Xbox had a Plex app, I ditched the Roku I had come to hate using and that was a great thing.
Another smartphone in an already oversaturated market? Surely I'm going to buy 5 and rip out my existing Apps and workflows for this masterpiece.
This whole thing is very Sam Altman
I don't understand the value proposition here for consumers.
For OpenAI, the value prop is obvious, but that's the problem with modern Silicon Valley product thinking: Company-first, consumer-maybe, with some carveouts for chronic early adopters and tech cheerleaders.
To use a very Silicon Valley term: There's no crossing the chasm here; The chasm has become too big to cross.
Social media is full of people complaining that they don't want this stuff getting installed on their phone so I'm not sure people will go out of their way to buy it.
Throwing shit on the wall so that something sticks? At this point, I really don't get what they're after. What about hiring Jonny Ive to create some AI widget to chat with? Gone nowhere?