No matter what, Apple (AAPL) is going to be fine. Indeed, it may well be an even bigger company by 2027 than the $2.6 trillion behemoth it is right now. Sales of the iPhone alone account for roughly half of Apple's top line, but neither unit sales nor iPhone revenue itself have surpassed 2020/2021's peak.

To this end, the company's overall top and bottom lines have been stagnant since then as well. There has been one bright spot of late, however. That's Apple's services arm. This business has continued to grow as more and more iPhone owners purchase more and more apps and other digital content through Apple. This is now the company's second-biggest business as measured by revenue, and while its gross profits are roughly half those driven by sales of physical products, services are still clearly an important part of Apple's total net income.

That shift away from iPhones and toward digital services won't be an easy transformation for Apple or its shareholders for a handful of reasons. A highly competitive AI-assistant market is one of them. Thus, Microsoft (MSFT) is already using artificial intelligence technology as a draw to its Bing search engine, for instance, which obviously helps generate ad revenue. It's also helping private, paying users of ChatGPT technology to better monetize these AI-powered platforms. Ditto for Google's Gemini.

It's just not clear how or even if these commercially minded features will be worth their cost in the increasingly competitive environment. The same applies to Apple's eventual entry into the space, which (given the underlying technology and consumer-facing business) is apt to be a more consumer-oriented than commercially oriented tool anyway.