OpenAI's ambitions to build a hardware rival to the iPhone are already running into trouble because of Apple's trade secret lawsuit, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who argues the damage is showing up well before any court ruling.


Apple sued OpenAI last week, accusing the company of pushing former employees, and even people it was trying to recruit, to hand over details on unreleased products. The suit also claims OpenAI coached new hires on how to dodge Apple's exit-interview security checks using a document tied to former iPhone design chief Tang Tan. Apple is asking the court to order OpenAI to stop the alleged conduct, destroy any proprietary material it obtained, and pay damages.

A courtroom resolution could take years, Gurman says, but he argues the suit is doing damage now, squeezing OpenAI's ability to recruit and creating drag on its device work long before a judge weighs in. OpenAI has declined to discuss its hardware roadmap directly, though in response to the suit the company said it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets" and remains focused on its own technology.

The scale of the talent drain is a major part of why this matters to Apple. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, including former Apple design chief Jony Ive, and Gurman says the company poached so heavily from Apple's iPhone product design group specifically that Apple had to rebuild parts of the team. Apple has responded with bigger retention bonuses and executives personally working to keep engineers from leaving.

The trade secret situation has apparently become one of Apple's biggest internal concerns of the past several months, ranking alongside tariff exposure and the ongoing memory chip shortage. In its own court filing, Apple frames the case as narrowly about trade secrets and describes OpenAI's hardware business as still nascent, arguing that discovery is needed to expose "the pervasive theft of Apple's trade secrets."

The lawsuit is said to already be reshaping OpenAI's hiring, independent of anything a court eventually decides. Apple employees weighing a move to OpenAI may now think twice given the added scrutiny, and even interviewing there could draw attention from Apple's security team, which could keep more engineers at Apple and slow the flow of institutional knowledge to OpenAI.

Former Apple employees are likely to grow more guarded about discussing prior work, with managers avoiding technical questions that risk touching Apple's confidential information. New legal reviews, tighter internal controls, and compliance training could pull engineers away from actual development, while senior OpenAI leadership spends time on discovery and depositions.

Given Apple's leverage over Asia's consumer electronics manufacturers, suppliers may be reluctant to deepen ties with OpenAI for fear of jeopardizing bigger, longer-standing relationships with Apple or getting pulled into the litigation themselves.

Bloomberg Intelligence wrote that "Apple is likely to secure targeted preliminary relief tied to OpenAI's device effort." Any such order would likely require disputed materials to be isolated, evidence preserved, and compliance certified, which could slow OpenAI's hardware plans further. In the longer term, if Apple can prove its trade secrets made it into OpenAI's products, OpenAI could be forced to redesign them.

Regardless, a person familiar with OpenAI's plans told Gurman the company still expects to announce its first hardware product this year and release it in 2027, though that could shift as OpenAI reviews Apple's claims. That device is reportedly far along, but building out a wider family of products, the kind Bloomberg previously described as central to OpenAI's device ambitions, will likely get harder. OpenAI has reportedly explored categories including smart speakers and wearables with an iPhone-style device as the eventual goal, but a simpler, non-phone product is expected to ship first.
This article, "Report: Apple's OpenAI Lawsuit Threatens iPhone Rival Plans" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple captured a record 20% share of the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2026, even as worldwide shipments fell 4% year-over-year amid an ongoing memory chip shortage, according to a new report from Omdia.


It is Apple's best second-quarter showing on record, landing in what is normally its slowest stretch of the year. Omdia credits this to a strong iPhone 17 upgrade cycle, as well as Apple keeping prices flat across the lineup while rivals were forced to raise theirs. The firm still flagged that Apple raised prices on other products late in the quarter, which raises the question of whether iPhone pricing will follow suit later this year.

The wider industry slump traces back to a memory chip shortage that has pushed component costs sharply higher, with some vendors reportedly paying several times more for memory than a year ago. Samsung was the only other major vendor to grow, holding the top overall spot at 22% share as Chinese competitors pulled back their lineups and raised prices to cope.

Omdia expects the squeeze to worsen over the next two quarters as peak shopping season collides with tight supply, pushing vendors further upmarket to protect margins. That is expected to leave fewer affordable options for budget buyers, and adds another data point to observe as Apple heads into an iPhone 18 cycle already facing rising component costs of its own.
This article, "Apple's Steady iPhone Pricing Pays Off as Rivals Scramble" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is developing a new API that will let third-party accessories, including Meta's Ray-Ban ‌Meta‌ glasses and Quest headsets, automatically pair across a user's Apple devices the same way AirPods and the Apple Watch do today, according to Apple's EU Interoperability Request page.


The plan responds to a request ‌Meta‌ filed in October 2025 under the EU's Digital Markets Act, asking Apple to let a ‌Meta‌ device, once paired with one iPhone or iPad, automatically become available on a user's other Apple devices without extra prompts. Third-party accessories have never been able to tap into that ability, meaning owning non-Apple hardware alongside an iPhone has always involved more friction. If Apple builds this out, that gap will close, at least for whichever manufacturers get access to the new API.

Apple told ‌Meta‌ on February 4 that it plans to let third-party apps access cryptographic materials that make a pairing completed on one Apple device usable on another, secured by a session key and a one-time, per-accessory user consent. Apple expects to finish development by spring 2027 and ship it "shortly thereafter," which points toward an iOS 27.x update, possibly iOS 27.4, though Apple has not yet confirmed a version.

The feature runs on AccessorySetupKit and Proximity Pairing, infrastructure Apple built to comply with a March 2025 European Commission ruling and which only works in the EU today, the same infrastructure behind the proximity pairing feature already live for EU users. ‌Meta‌ has objected that adopting it would force the company to abandon Core Bluetooth, which it relies on for pairing everywhere outside Europe, and has asked Apple to decouple the two. Apple has declined so far, though it told ‌Meta‌ that support outside the EU "is something we are still considering."

The request remains in phase three as of Apple's most recent update. ‌Meta‌ hasn't yet invoked the DMA's formal dispute resolution process, which would trigger a review by Apple's Interoperability Request Review Board within 30 working days. Until then, Apple's plan proceeds with a spring 2027 rollout tied to AccessorySetupKit, in the EU only.
This article, "Apple Plans AirPods-Like Pairing for Meta's Glasses and Quest" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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