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I think Apple will become increasingly draconian about LLMs. Very soon people won't need to buy many of their apps. They can just make them. This threatens Appl

I think Apple will become increasingly draconian about LLMs. Very soon people won't need to buy many of their apps. They can just make them. This threatens Apple's entire business model.

StilesCrisis 6mo ago
Apple's business model isn't really affected by 2% of its users choosing not to spend $100/yr on the App Store. That isn't even a blip on the radar. A kid playing Roblox can spend more than that in a good weekend.
Forgeties79 6mo ago
I guess I am not seeing why would I want to abandon most (if any) of my simple, small, purpose-built apps that always do the exact thing I want for a private company’s ever-changing LLM that will approximate what I’m asking and approximate its response utilizing far more resources. I’m sure there are things on my phone it could replace (though I struggle to think of them) but there are plenty it can’t. My black magic camera app, web browsers, local send, libby/hoopla… I can’t really think of any apps I use every day - or every week - that an LLM would replace. I’m not coding on my smartphone and aside from that an LLM is basically a more complex, somewhat inconsistent search engine experience right now for most people. Siri didn’t replace any of my apps, for instance. Why would chatGPT? TL;DR: what apps would an LLM replace on my iPhone?
borborigmus 6mo ago
VibeOS. It’s just an LLM from which all other userspace is vibed.
- username223 6mo ago
  vibe-ls(1) - often list directory contents, but maybe do something else. Where can I get this amazing technology?
mrkpdl 6mo ago
But… why would I put the effort into getting an llm to make me an app when a there’s an existing app that I don’t have to maintain? I don’t want to have to make every app I use?
- orrito 6mo ago
  There's a huge difference between local apps that cost one time 3-10$ and apps that ask for a subscription between 5 to 20$ per month. the first category will remain and might become more popular as quality increases, the second category will be oblitereated as the value isn't there, even if all the buyers are rich. The second group takes up a much larger part of the pie than the first though, so apple's revenue will decrease.
  - davidmurdoch 6mo ago
    All apps that don't have a tangible component, legal protection (like music, tv, movies), or a personality behind it will trend towards $0.
- Gareth321 6mo ago
  It depends on the value of your time relative to the price of the application. Many of us here are well paid and time poor. It makes sense to pay for well built apps. For the world, we are truly the top 1%. 99% of people would be happy to spend a few hours building an app they need to occasionally maintain. Especially if the app is subscription based. We should also remember that the effort of building and maintaining apps is dropping precipitously as LLMs get smarter, faster, and cheaper. OpenClaw signalled the direction in which we're heading, and within a year, Anthropic will no doubt have cheap and competent agents which can handle the maintenance autonomously in the background. This is why SaaS valuations are getting hammered.
  - Forgeties79 6mo ago
    > 99% of people would be happy to spend a few hours building an app they need to occasionally maintain. Especially if the app is subscription based. With people slowly abandoning dedicated computers they fully control (if we can even call windows/macOS that) and going towards mobile/tablet computing more every year, which is a far more locked down device run by companies that are becoming increasingly hostile to “side-loading,” I just don’t see how this can become reality.
raw_anon_1111 6mo ago
It came out in the Epic trial that 90% of App Store revenue comes from in app purchases of loot boxes and other pay to win mechanics. Apple doesn’t care about revenue from a random TODO app.
- thinkthatover 6mo ago
  truly a k-shaped economy we live in
- Gareth321 6mo ago
  From games? Why would people pay to play those games when they can make their own?
  - raw_anon_1111 6mo ago
    You’re not going to make a game using AI.
    - kaliqt 6mo ago
      Not yet, which is the point of this discussion.
GeekyBear 6mo ago
They are said to be introducing a framework to make it easier to integrate modern LLMs into apps in a couple of months at WWDC. https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/01/apple-replacing-core-ml-with-modernized-core-ai-framework-for-ios-27-at-wwdc/ https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/01/apple-replacing-core-ml-with-...

I think Apple will become increasingly draconian about LLMs. Very soon people won't need to buy many of their apps. They can just make them. This threatens Apple's entire business model.

StilesCrisis 6mo ago

Apple's business model isn't really affected by 2% of its users choosing not to spend $100/yr on the App Store. That isn't even a blip on the radar. A kid playing Roblox can spend more than that in a good weekend.

Forgeties79 6mo ago

I guess I am not seeing why would I want to abandon most (if any) of my simple, small, purpose-built apps that always do the exact thing I want for a private company’s ever-changing LLM that will approximate what I’m asking and approximate its response utilizing far more resources. I’m sure there are things on my phone it could replace (though I struggle to think of them) but there are plenty it can’t. My black magic camera app, web browsers, local send, libby/hoopla… I can’t really think of any apps I use every day - or every week - that an LLM would replace. I’m not coding on my smartphone and aside from that an LLM is basically a more complex, somewhat inconsistent search engine experience right now for most people. Siri didn’t replace any of my apps, for instance. Why would chatGPT? TL;DR: what apps would an LLM replace on my iPhone?

borborigmus 6mo ago

VibeOS. It’s just an LLM from which all other userspace is vibed.

username223 6mo ago
vibe-ls(1) - often list directory contents, but maybe do something else. Where can I get this amazing technology?

mrkpdl 6mo ago

But… why would I put the effort into getting an llm to make me an app when a there’s an existing app that I don’t have to maintain? I don’t want to have to make every app I use?

orrito 6mo ago
There's a huge difference between local apps that cost one time 3-10$ and apps that ask for a subscription between 5 to 20$ per month. the first category will remain and might become more popular as quality increases, the second category will be oblitereated as the value isn't there, even if all the buyers are rich. The second group takes up a much larger part of the pie than the first though, so apple's revenue will decrease.
- davidmurdoch 6mo ago
  All apps that don't have a tangible component, legal protection (like music, tv, movies), or a personality behind it will trend towards $0.
Gareth321 6mo ago
It depends on the value of your time relative to the price of the application. Many of us here are well paid and time poor. It makes sense to pay for well built apps. For the world, we are truly the top 1%. 99% of people would be happy to spend a few hours building an app they need to occasionally maintain. Especially if the app is subscription based. We should also remember that the effort of building and maintaining apps is dropping precipitously as LLMs get smarter, faster, and cheaper. OpenClaw signalled the direction in which we're heading, and within a year, Anthropic will no doubt have cheap and competent agents which can handle the maintenance autonomously in the background. This is why SaaS valuations are getting hammered.
- Forgeties79 6mo ago
  > 99% of people would be happy to spend a few hours building an app they need to occasionally maintain. Especially if the app is subscription based. With people slowly abandoning dedicated computers they fully control (if we can even call windows/macOS that) and going towards mobile/tablet computing more every year, which is a far more locked down device run by companies that are becoming increasingly hostile to “side-loading,” I just don’t see how this can become reality.

raw_anon_1111 6mo ago

It came out in the Epic trial that 90% of App Store revenue comes from in app purchases of loot boxes and other pay to win mechanics. Apple doesn’t care about revenue from a random TODO app.

thinkthatover 6mo ago
truly a k-shaped economy we live in
Gareth321 6mo ago
From games? Why would people pay to play those games when they can make their own?
- raw_anon_1111 6mo ago
  You’re not going to make a game using AI.
  - kaliqt 6mo ago
    Not yet, which is the point of this discussion.

GeekyBear 6mo ago

They are said to be introducing a framework to make it easier to integrate modern LLMs into apps in a couple of months at WWDC. https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/01/apple-replacing-core-ml-with-modernized-core-ai-framework-for-ios-27-at-wwdc/ https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/01/apple-replacing-core-ml-with-...