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Apple Intelligence is not extremely valuable, according to an initial survey

Apple Intelligence is not extremely valuable, according to an initial survey

Adding AI features like Apple Intelligence isn’t impressing consumers, according to a survey of Apple and Samsung smartphone owners, but the timing of the survey may have skewed the results.

Apple Intelligence is Apple’s main feature defined in iOS 18, but it’s not the only company to include AI features in its devices. Other smartphone makers, including Google and Samsung, are offering their own versions of the AI ​​concept, with images and similar prompt-based features.

However, while they may be impressive, it seems that most consumers don’t care enough about smartphone AI to adjust their purchasing habits. At least that’s what a survey conducted for SellCell among owners of Apple and Samsung smartphones reveals.

One of the major takeaways from the survey is that consumers are confused by AI on their devices. When asked if AI features currently add “significant value” to their experience, about 73% of respondents said they care more about other features or add “little or no of value.”

Only 11.1% said AI features were useful, and 15.9% felt they were “somewhat” but not significantly useful.

In contrast, only 5.9% of Samsung users said the Galaxy AI was very valuable, 7.1% said it was somewhat valuable, and 87% said it was not very valuable or valuable. offered little or no value.

Value of Apple Intelligence – Image credit: SellCell

When compared to the AI ​​features of Samsung devices, only 15.4% of Apple Intelligence users said Apple’s version was better than the Galaxy AI, while 5.9% said the opposite. The vast majority of respondents said neither was better (32%) or that they didn’t know enough about AI to compare.

Conversely, only 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 75.4% said neither was better.

These results at least suggest the idea that Apple owners are more defensive about the brand compared to Samsung users.

However, it also shows that users don’t see much benefit from AI at the moment. This is partly because AI is at a very early stage in the AI ​​lifecycle, but it could also simply be due to the timing of the investigation.

A methodological warning

A big problem with the survey is the time period in which the data was collected. This is a big enough issue that it would likely have influenced the results, had it been delayed 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 more than 1,000 iPhone users with an AI-enabled iPhone model, including iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and iPhone 16.

For the Samsung contingent, more than 1,000 people were used for the survey, using models that also support AI. A prequalification question to confirm whether they own an iPhone or Samsung model that supports AI was used to deny users who may not have used AI on their smartphone before.

However, although its methodology is quite honest, the crucial problem is that it was carried out online between November 28 and December 6, 2024.

During this period, only the Apple Intelligence elements introduced in iOS 18.1 were available, including Siri Product Knowledge, Writing Tools, and the Cleanup tool in Photos. Apple introduced iOS 18.2 on December 11, releasing major features like Visual Intelligence, Image Playground, and Genmoji nearly a week after the survey closed.

One could easily argue that, at the very least, Apple’s survey respondents could have seen more value in Apple Intelligence if they had had the time to try it. However, during this time, only those who participated in the developer beta for iOS 18.2 would have been able to try out the incoming features.

Apple Intelligence features used by users – Image credit: SellCell

When asked what respondents had used in Apple Intelligence available at the time, 72% said they had tried the writing tools. About 54% used Notification Summaries, 44.5% used Priority Messages in Mail, and 29.1% looked at Cleaning in Photos.

More people have tried natural language search in Photos than have used enhanced conversational Siri, at 13.3% versus 3.1%.

The lack of Genmoji and Image Playground is very apparent here, since they haven’t been released. It is likely that if the survey had been carried out later, when iOS 18.2 was released, the features would have been used much more.

In contrast, on Samsung’s side, 82.1% had used Circle to Search, where users drew a circle around an image and then used Google to search for its content. Photo Assist, the AI ​​photo editing and generative editing tools, was used by 55.5% of respondents, while 17.4% used Note Assist transcriptions.

AI Switches

When it came to whether people would switch from Apple to Android because of Galaxy AI’s features, only 16.8% said they would if Galaxy AI was “significantly better.” About 78.9% said they wouldn’t because they prefer iPhone or Apple Intelligence.

SellCell claims this is a slight drop in brand loyalty from the 92% seen in 2021. However, this is not a like-for-like comparison as the older result mentioned in the The report is about overall brand awareness, not a result based on overall brand awareness. the existence and functionalities of Apple Intelligence.

AI-powered switching results for Apple users – Image credit: SellCell

In the other direction, a smaller 9.7% of Samsung users would switch to Apple if Apple Intelligence was significantly better. 67.2% said they wouldn’t because they prefer Galaxy AI.

On the importance of AI when purchasing a new smartphone, 21.1% of Apple users said AI was “a deciding factor,” while 26.5% said it was “quite important”, if not the most important. For Samsung, a smaller proportion of 14.9% see AI as a deciding factor, and 8.8% as somewhat important.

This relatively low level of importance makes sense because consumers still want to get the best cameras and displays for their devices.

As for whether they would be willing to pay for a subscription to AI services in the future, Apple users are more willing, with 11.6% agreeing and 1.9% responding “maybe” to the question. Only 4% of Samsung users said they would pay, and 1.5% voted “maybe.”

This is certainly not encouraging for Siri’s ChatGPT integration, as it takes advantage of subscriptions to the OpenAI service if it is available.