Apple Intelligence isn't hugely important, says an iPhone user survey done too early
The addition of AI features like Apple Intelligence are not impressive to consumers, a survey of Apple and Samsung smartphone owners claims, but the timing of the survey may have skewed the results.
Image Playground, which survey respondents wouldn't have used
Apple Intelligence is Apple's main feature set in iOS 18, but it's not the only company to include AI features in its devices. Other smartphone producers, including Google and Samsung, offer their own takes on the AI concept, with similar image and prompt-based features.
However, while they can be impressive, it seems most consumers don't really care that much about smartphone AI enough to adjust their buying habits. At least, that's according to a survey conducted for SellCell involving Apple and Samsung smartphone owners.
One of the big data points from the survey is that consumers are nonplussed by AI on their devices. When asked if AI features currently add "significant value" to their experience, approximately 73% of respondents said they either cared more about other features or that they added "little to no value."
Only 11.1% said the AI features were valuable, and 15.9% believed they were "somewhat" but not significantly valuable.
By contrast, a mere 5.9% of Samsung users said that Galaxy AI was very valuable, 7.1% said it was somewhat valuable, and 87% said it was not very valuable or offered little to no value.
Apple Intelligence's value - Image Credit: SellCell
Compared to AI features on Samsung devices, only 15.4% of Apple Intelligence users said Apple's version was better than Galaxy AI, while 5.9% said the opposite was true. The vast majority of respondents either said neither was better (32%) or that they didn't know enough about AI to compare.
Going the opposite way, just 7.8% of Samsung owners thought Galaxy AI was better than Apple Intelligence, while 3.8% said Apple Intelligence was better. Again, 13% didn't know enough to compare, while a massive 75.4% said neither was better.
These results do at least propose the idea that Apple owners are more defensive of the brand versus users of Samsung.
However it also shows that users don't see that much benefit to AI at all right now. Part of this is due to being at a very early stage in the lifecycle of AI, but part of it could simply be the timing of the survey.
A methodology caveat
A big problem with the survey is the period of time when the data was collected. It's a significant enough problem that it has likely swayed the results, had it been delayed for a few weeks for the iOS 18.2 release.
The methodology involved more than 2,000 smartphone owners in the United States aged 18 or older. The sample consisted of over 1,000 iPhone users with an AI-supporting iPhone model, including the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and the iPhone 16.
For the Samsung contingent, over 1,000 people were used for the survey, using models that also supported AI. A prequalifying question to confirm if they have an AI-supporting iPhone or Samsung model was used to turn away users who wouldn't have used AI on their smartphone before.
However, while pretty above board in its methodology, the crucial problem is that it was conducted online between November 28 and December 6, 2024.
During this period, only the elements of Apple Intelligence introduced in iOS 18.1 were available to use, including Siri product knowledge, Writing Tools, and the Clean Up tool in Photos. Apple introduced iOS 18.2 on December 11, releasing major features such as Visual Intelligence, Image Playground and Genmoji almost a week after the survey closed.
It could easily be argued that, at the very least, the Apple respondents could've seen more value in Apple Intelligence had they been given the time to try it out. However, in that timeframe, only those who took part in the developer beta for iOS 18.2 would've been able to try out the inbound features.
Apple Intelligence features used by users - Image Credit: SellCell
When asked what the respondents had used in Apple Intelligence available at that time, 72% had claimed to have tried out Writing Tools. About 54% had used notification summaries, 44.5% had used Priority messages in Mail, and 29.1% had looked at Clean Up in Photos.
More people had tried out natural language search in Photos than they had used the improved conversational Siri, at 13.3% versus 3.1%.
The lack of Genmoji and Image Playground is very apparent here, since they weren't released. It's likely that, had the survey been taken at a later time when iOS 18.2 had been released, there would be a lot higher uptake of the features.
By contrast, on the Samsung side, 82.1% had used Circle to Search, where users draw a circle around an image and then use Google to search for its contents. Photo Assist, AI photo editing and generative editing tools, were used by 55.5% of respondents, while 17.4% used Note Assist transcriptions.
AI switchers
When it comes to whether people would switch over from Apple to Android because of Galaxy AI features, only 16.8%% said they would if Galaxy AI was "significantly better." Approximately 78.9% said they wouldn't, as they prefer iPhone or Apple Intelligence.
SellCell claims this is a small drop in brand loyalty compared to 92% observed in 2021. However, this is not a like-for-like comparison, as the older result referred to by the report is about general brand awareness, not one based on the existence and features of Apple Intelligence.
AI-based switching results for Apple users - Image Credit: SellCell
Going the other way, a smaller 9.7% proportion of Samsung users would go over to Apple if Apple Intelligence was significantly better. 67.2% said that they wouldn't as they prefer Galaxy AI.
On the topic of AI importance when buying a new smartphone, 21.1% of Apple users said AI was "a deciding factor" while 26.5% said it was "somewhat important," if not the most important. For Samsung, a smaller 14.9% proportion rated AI as a deciding factor, and 8.8% as being somewhat important.
The relatively low level of importance makes sense, as consumers are still keen to get the best cameras and display for their devices.
As for whether they would be willing to pay in the future for an AI services subscription, Apple users are more willing, with 11.6 agreeing and 1.9% saying "maybe" to the question. A mere 4% of Samsung users said they would pay, and 1.5% voted "maybe."
This certainly isn't encouraging for Siri's ChatGPT integration, since it does take advantage of subscriptions to OpenAI's service if it's available.
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Comments
For the rest of us? Meh. The mass market would get more benefit from a display glass that is unbreakable, smooth on your fingers, and really doesn't collect oils a whole lot more. I'd argue that unbreakable display covers for iPhones is a whole lot more valuable to people than GenAI. It's a service. People will use it when it becomes available and is free. They will be fine without it. It's basically a new, more advanced "search" service.
I’m disappointed that Apple is pushing Apple Intelligence so hard in their current promotional presence. I don’t believe the current state of Apple Intelligence is at a point that it justifies making a purchase decision based solely on its merit for the majority of Apple’s customer base. Yet it’s being promoted so heavily, almost to the point of what you’d expect from a carnival sideshow hawker. “Behold, the half-human, half-donkey boy holding a smartphone with a synthetic all-knowing and highly creative brain inside it.”
Yes, I don’t know what the majority believes, but as a longtime Apple customer with a high level interest in the potential of AI in many critical places, I have a hard time with what I believe at this time is overselling - at this point in time. Give it a few more months to flesh out the promises for the first generation. In a couple more release cycles then promote the significant new features that help you do something that help you simplify your life and save you time and energy in a meaningful way. Some of the current Apple Intelligence features have consumable value but some others are, imho, nothing but toys. I think Apple has been on the right path for several years with AI, ML, VR, AR, etc., but they are now cowtowing to the critics and are now operating in the Buzzword Zone.
I've used AI-based apps since they've been available on the iPhone such as Arc Search. These have changed how I use my phone and what i expect from it but with so many apps now, it feels like a bit of a mess. I'll upgrade to an AI-capable device one day and am looking forward to a big jump with native capabilities. This along with all the "little" improvements will certainly make the new phone feel like a big and very welcome improvement.
Having larger capacity batteries is an easy thing for OEMs to do. No R&D is needed. It’s not a technology problem. Yet, long battery life phones aren’t common models. This says something about what the market wants.
But the current crop of AI does things I don’t want them to do. I like to write. I do not ever want an AI system to write for me, or worse yet edit my work. I paint and draw and do art. I do not ever want an AI system to do that for me. I do not ever want an AI system to decide what is the important part of an article, an email thread, or an online post. I do not ever want what I read or see to be censored by an AI system (summary).
So, I’m fine with the AI in the Camera App. I’m happy with the AI in my watch and Health App that watches for heart and other warning signs. I am very happy with the AI in my car that watches a hundred things so I can just enjoy the drive. Heck, I love the section in Procreate that makes my brush stroke look like an airbrush, or oil paint, or a pencil. All that is great. They all work in the background without my needing to deal with the tool.
And that’s what Apple, and Google, and Microsoft and others have missed. They are trying to make their AI systems obvious, front and centre, something you have to expressly work with to do anything on the computer or device. There’s a lot of us that pointedly do not want that. Computers need to be made simpler and easier to use, not have more things to wrestle with slapped on top of the pile. AI? Put it in the background to manage the routine fiddly stuff so I can get on with the job of being creative.
I tried the image playground thing and the output looked like some wholesome storybook illustration. Disgusting.🤮
The email summaries also seem fine, though not that useful for me as I do not get very elaborate emails.
The Images Playground is just a toy for now. The Genemoji generated based on some people I know is pretty spot-on, while it fails spectacularly on others (like myself!). The image generated based on a description is pretty fun to try out.
Here is the result of my prompt - "pig flying over Battersea Power Station". I was pleasantly surprised that it understood "Battersea Power Station". The image, of course, is a lot cheerier than the brooding artwork and album that prompted its generation.