Apple finally overtakes Samsung with the iPhone 17

BarcelonaApple has posted its best quarterly results ever thanks to spectacular sales of the base iPhone 17. This year, 2025, the brand will surpass Samsung as the world leader in... smartphones for the first time since 2011. But this success masks a multifaceted crisis: the largest exodus of executives since the death of Steve Jobs, the controversy of liquid glass of iOS 26 and the humiliation of having to pay Google $1 billion annually to use its artificial intelligence.

Apple published its fiscal fourth-quarter results on October 30, reporting €97.4 billion in revenue—a record for the quarter ending in September, up 8%—and €26.1 billion in net profit. For the full fiscal year 2025: €395.2 billion in revenue (up 6%) and €106.4 billion in net profit (a record), an enviable gross margin of 47.2%. The only downside is China, with a 4% drop to €13.8 billion, although it recovered in October with 37% growth. For the first fiscal quarter of 2026, Apple expects growth of between 10% and 12%. The consulting firm Counterpoint predicts that Apple will close this year with a market share of 19.4% and 243 million phones sold, surpassing Samsung's 235 million. IDC, another consulting firm, confirms this: "2025 will be a record year for Apple thanks to the huge success of the iPhone 17."

The basic model triumphs, the Air disappoints

The iPhone 17, without the Pro or Air designations, has become the Apple phone everyone wants to buy: according to Counterpoint, during the first ten days, sales of the basic iPhone 17 in the US and China exceeded those of the iPhone 16 by 14%. The brand has taken the best features of the Pro variant and the iPhone 9, including a variable refresh rate display up to 120 Hz; the 17 Pro (€1,319) adds a 4x/8x telephoto lens, 4K video recording at 120 fps with ProRes RAW, vapor cooling, 12 GB of RAM, and a larger battery that will only benefit the four professional photographers. The ultra-thin iPhone Air has been a disappointmentAnalyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple has cut its planned production by 80% for the first quarter of 2026, and Consumer Intelligence Research indicates that it only represents 3% of sales in the US. The problem is its price of €1,219, only €100 less than the Pro, for a single camera, a 3,149 mAh battery, and a mono speaker. Naturally, most discerning buyers opt for the Pro.

Exodus of executives

At Apple headquarters in Cupertino, all is not well. The company is experiencing unprecedented internal turmoil. Alan Dye, senior vice president of design, announced on December 3rd that he was leaving for Meta Platforms. Dye is responsible for the controversial liquid glass of iOS 26, announced at WWDC in June as "the most profound overhaul of Apple's operating systems." The interface with semi-transparent elements was very poorly received: illegible text on transparent backgrounds, an excess of nauseating animations, and overly small touch buttons that violate accessibility guidelines. One user said: "Apple just reinvented Windows Vista. Look at this revolution." Dye's departure came just after Apple had to add the option to disable the most annoying effects to iOS 26.1.

But the list of departures doesn't end there. John Giannandrea, head of AI, will retire in the spring after receiving criticism for the delays in Siri; Jeff Williams (chief operating officer), Kate Adams (general counsel), Lisa Jackson (environmental initiatives), and Luca Maestri (chief financial officer) are also leaving. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that Johnny Srouji, the architect of Apple's proprietary chips that are the crown jewel of the company, was considering leaving, but two days later he sent a message to his team: "I don't plan to leave in the immediate future." Apparently, Cook has offered him a substantial salary increase and the carrot of the chief technology officer position.

Meanwhile, Tim Cook has just turned 65, and rumors are growing about his replacement at the helm of Apple. According to the Financial TimesThe board of directors has "intensified preparations" for a transition in 2026. The frontrunner appears to be John Ternus (50 years old), vice president of hardware engineering. Cook could continue as CEO, similar to Jeff Bezos at Amazon.

As if that weren't enough, Apple, the brand that boasts of doing everything in-house, has had to approach its rival with a checkbook. According to Bloomberg, Apple will pay Google $1 billion for a Gemini model with 1.2 trillion parameters, eight times larger than Apple's current AI model. It appears it will arrive in Siri this spring with iOS 26.4. After comparing Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT, Apple chose Google's model due to more favorable financial terms and their pre-existing relationship: Google pays Apple over $20 billion annually to be the default search engine on iPhones. The company insists that Google will not see any user data and that the use of Gemini is temporary while it develops its own 1 trillion parameter model by 2026. It's an irony that Cook strives to downplay in every presentation.

Open war with Brussels

Speaking of Cook, Apple's CEO has launched several attacks against the EU, with a virulence uncharacteristic of an executive who has always been known for his affability in public. Back in June 2021, he warned that "the Digital Markets Act (DMA) would destroy iPhone security. The proof is that Android has 47 times more malware." "The DMA makes it very difficult for us to do business in Europe," he insisted a few weeks ago. The consequences: Apple Intelligence arrived in the EU six months late, and features like phone screen mirroring on a computer and advanced screen sharing are still not available to Europeans. In fact, the Live Translation feature—not in Catalan, mind you—with AirPods was only activated in the EU this past Monday.

Brussels has hit Apple with fines: €1.8 billion for the Spotify case (March 2024), €14.4 billion for tax engineering in Ireland (September 2024), and €500 million for violating the DMA in App2. Apple has appealed, arguing that "the decision goes far beyond what the law requires." A CEO publicly stating that democratic governments are a nuisance speaks volumes about the current state of Apple.

The company continues to make a lot of money, but seems to have lost its aura of invincibility. The products remain excellent, but less magical. If the iPhone 17 is a success, it's not because Apple has revolutionized anything, but because those who want an iPhone no longer want to pay €1,500. This would be a good summary: commercial success in the midst of an existential crisis. Apple is at a turning point, and it remains to be seen whether the next chapter will be as brilliant as the previous ones. It's no longer about the ability to sell more iPhones, but about maintaining its culture of innovation while facing Cook's succession and the largest executive exodus in its history.