Wall Street analysts say Meta's new Muse AI assistant and related hardware pose a direct challenge to Apple's iPhone-centered business. Needham's Laura Martin and Bank of America's Wamsi Mohan argue Meta is building agentic AI and payment tools that could reduce the iPhone's role as the hub of consumer technology.
Meta's Muse AI assistant and the hardware built around it are aimed squarely at undermining Apple's core business, according to Needham analyst Laura Martin, who calls this the biggest investment risk facing Apple shareholders.
Meta's Muse hardware targets the iPhone's role
Martin's concern centers on Meta, or another competitor, building agentic AI systems into their own hardware and unseating the iPhone as the hub for consumer-technology interactions. In a Thursday note to clients, she pointed to Meta's rollout of devices such as keychains and glasses as a credible risk to Apple, which she views as largely built around the one iPhone product line.
When Mark Zuckerberg launched Muse on Sept. 8, it intensified a race with Apple, according to Bank of America's Wamsi Mohan. He described heightened competition to capture the tasks users want an assistant to carry out on their behalf, as iPhone users currently reach for their phones for most of what they want to do. Mohan pointed out in a client note on Tuesday that Muse reached 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks, a sign the assistant's popularity isn't something to ignore.
Payments and data access widen the gap
Muse can directly access systems like Shopify's Shop Pay, and Meta has also partnered with Expedia and PayPal. Through these ties, Apple may cede some of its power to decide which apps users see most and whether they pay through Apple Pay or other means, Mohan said.
Apple's privacy-oriented design may also work against it here. The company limits how much user information its systems store, while AI systems generally retain more data to help agents execute tasks with context, something Mohan argued could limit Siri's potential.
Mohan said Meta has built payment systems through Stripe's Link agent wallet, which lets users hide card details from merchants and AI systems, and noted that Apple hasn't "exposed Apple Pay to Siri in the same way."
Apple's response centers on Siri and Apple Pay
Apple isn't standing still and reportedly has plans to develop general-purpose smartglasses similar to Meta's. But Mohan argued Apple's highest priority should be building a Siri agent that pairs with Apple Pay to keep users inside its payment ecosystem. Meta and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Source: MarketWatch
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