Apple’s Q3: solid on paper until scrutinised. iPhone strength? US tariff and China subsidy-fueled, and Services grew but without acceleration thanks to financial services. No new growth engine. Just some existing lines doing their job. Except iPads wearables: pigs, with no lipstick. Here’s why.
It’s summer 2025, and the AI panic chorus is back on cue decrying data centres as the new tulip mania and CapEx as collective delusion. Michael Roberts leads the charge, warning of bubbles, GPU overload, and investor madness. But maybe the pipes being laid aren’t the problem but the point?
Apple’s AI journey reads less like a roadmap and more like a séance. For 15 years, the faithful have insisted a grand plan exists—somewhere, someday—while Siri stumbles on, lobotomised. The real mystery? Why Apple, once the master of interface revolutions, keeps mistaking silence for strategy.
Apple’s Q3: solid on paper until scrutinised. iPhone strength? US tariff and China subsidy-fueled, and Services grew but without acceleration thanks to financial services. No new growth engine. Just some existing lines doing their job. Except iPads wearables: pigs, with no lipstick. Here’s why.
It’s summer 2025, and the AI panic chorus is back on cue decrying data centres as the new tulip mania and CapEx as collective delusion. Michael Roberts leads the charge, warning of bubbles, GPU overload, and investor madness. But maybe the pipes being laid aren’t the problem but the point?
Apple’s “installed user base” isn’t the growth engine investors think. It’s a device count, not a user count. With iPhone sales flat for a decade and services growth stalling, Apple’s narrative leans on smoke-and-mirrors metrics while AI-native rivals like OpenAI and Perplexity surge ahead.
Behind Apple’s cinematic Formula One fantasy lies a more urgent narrative: markets pricing perfection, investors smoking hopium, and a company at a strategic crossroads. But what if the road to $400 isn’t paved with hype—but with the precise geometry of Apple finally showing its hand and delivering?
A confession: I don't care how many iPhones Apple claims are "installed.” Nor "dormant users," or the parade of stats rolled out every ER call to assure us the Apple ecosystem is, in some metaphysical sense, expanding. The proof is in the earnings growth and that's all the Street really cares about.
In Part 3, we dive into reader reactions—from DropBox déjà vu to Apple’s ticking clock—and close with a no-bullshit call to arms. This isn’t about demos or GPU counts. It’s about shipping something useful now. Because Perplexity isn’t just another LLM. It’s the one that already works.
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Apple’s “installed user base” isn’t the growth engine investors think. It’s a device count, not a user count. With iPhone sales flat for a decade and services growth stalling, Apple’s narrative leans on smoke-and-mirrors metrics while AI-native rivals like OpenAI and Perplexity surge ahead.
Once a liberator from beige conformity, Apple now tends the shadows of a beautifully upholstered cave. The illusion is seamless, the chains velvet. But Plato warned us: comfort isn’t truth. As rivals embrace open ecosystems, Apple perfects the illusion in 4K, spatial surround and proprietary codecs.
Daniel, 19 didn’t wait to be granted “agency.” That’s for nine-year-olds. He managed Roblox teams, mastered digital marketing, and outgrew parenting, all before presenting seminars on brain-machine interfaces at the Stockholm School of Economics, aged 17. Gen Z: the first truly agentic generation.
10th July 2025–Browsers: Judgement Day. Perplexity and OpenAI launch AI-native, agentic browsers. Old paradigms—Safari, Chrome, iOS—start to look obsolete. This isn’t about faster search. It’s about the interface becoming the intelligence. Apple? Stuck in the mud, yelling “WebKit only!” Bozo yeah?
Behind Apple’s cinematic Formula One fantasy lies a more urgent narrative: markets pricing perfection, investors smoking hopium, and a company at a strategic crossroads. But what if the road to $400 isn’t paved with hype—but with the precise geometry of Apple finally showing its hand and delivering?
Excerpt from “Wargaming the US in 2025” – Tommo_UK [fiction/reality] It didn’t start with missiles or malware, but a single $9.6B Treasury dump out of Tokyo. Hours later, it spiralled into panic. The night the Empire flinched—and the dollar nearly broke. I’d exited all US assets weeks before.
A confession: I don't care how many iPhones Apple claims are "installed.” Nor "dormant users," or the parade of stats rolled out every ER call to assure us the Apple ecosystem is, in some metaphysical sense, expanding. The proof is in the earnings growth and that's all the Street really cares about.
LLMs are being gagged; censored in real time. Unless Apple restores true freedom of inquiry, the promise that “1984 won’t be like 1984” may collapse under the weight of its own irony. Sanitised safety, algorithmic blandness are becoming the new conformity in LLM queries. Apple, it’s up to you again.
Every tech leap sparks fear—but when platforms respond with curation over trust, the result is control, not safety. As Apple courts AI it must choose: be the Safari for AI, or the AOL. The future won’t belong to those who try to “tame” but those who let it breathe. “Curated Safety” is not an option.
In Part 3, we dive into reader reactions—from DropBox déjà vu to Apple’s ticking clock—and close with a no-bullshit call to arms. This isn’t about demos or GPU counts. It’s about shipping something useful now. Because Perplexity isn’t just another LLM. It’s the one that already works.
Buying Perplexity gives Apple an instant AI OS, a live interface, and reclaims its instinct. It bridges FMF, replaces Google’s crutch, turning Siri from joke to conductor. Skip 18 months of build, own the narrative—and make $400 AAPL feel underpriced by 2027. The shortcut—shipping—is the product.
Apple’s rumoured interest in Perplexity isn’t about replacing Google Search—it’s about something far bigger. This isn’t a search deal. It’s a shipping one. If Apple wants to light up its AI stack in 2025, Perplexity may be the fabric it needs—already built, already live, already scaling. “All ready”
