Apple Inc. (AAPL) could keep selling millions of iPhones and still lose something increasingly valuable: control over what users do next.
The Cupertino, California-based tech giant faces a subtle threat to its hardware dominance: Meta Platforms Inc. (META)'s Muse.
By steering where users shop, book travel, or make payments, Muse risks stripping Apple of valuable discovery, referral, and transaction revenue, even as iPhone sales remain robust.
As Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan noted on Tuesday, Apple "can keep every handset sale and still lose discovery, referral, and transaction initiation."
What Meta's Muse Can Already Do
Meta launched Muse on Sept. 8. It is an artificial-intelligence agent that opens a browser, fills in forms, negotiates and keeps working after the app is closed.
Muse reached the top of the U.S. iOS free-app chart and passed 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks.
Each user gets a private virtual computer inside Meta's data centers. As a result, a task keeps running even when the phone sits idle.
Commerce partners are already on board. Shopify Inc. (SHOP) opened its full catalog and Shop Pay to the agent, while Expedia Group Inc. (EXPE) and PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL) signed on. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), however, blocked it outright.
Where Siri Stands After iOS 27
Apple shipped a rebuilt Siri with iOS 27 on Sept. 14, trained using custom Google Gemini models. Yet Mohan noted Siri still trails Muse in crucial functional areas.
"What Siri AI does not yet have is the agentic capabilities of persistent background tasks, third-party action coverage, or an agent payment rail at Muse's level of visible completeness," Mohan said.
Development pace poses another hurdle, as Apple's annual software release cycle contrasts with daily AI agent updates. "Agents are accelerating innovation cycles," Mohan added.
Bank of America maintained a Buy rating and $370 price target on Apple, implying a valuation multiple of 37 times its calendar 2027 earnings-per-share (EPS) estimate of $9.98. While that multiple exceeds Apple's five-year range of 19 to 35 times, the bank said the premium is justified by the agentic-AI opportunity and an upcoming multiyear upgrade cycle.
The bank forecasts Apple EPS of $8.85 for fiscal 2026 (up 18.6%) and $9.46 for fiscal 2027.
