Elon Musk Unintentionally Reveals Why the iPhone Isn’t Going Anywhere

Summary

WSJ Tech News Briefing

Episode: "Elon Musk Unintentionally Reveals Why the iPhone Isn’t Going Anywhere"

Date: September 5, 2025
Host: Patrick Coffey
Guests: Heidi Mitchell (WSJ Contributor), Tim Higgins (WSJ Columnist and Bold Names Podcast Co-host)

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Episode Overview

This episode of the WSJ Tech News Briefing explores the future of smartphones in the age of AI, focusing on two parallel trends: advanced security features from phone and telecom providers, and industry speculation (and legal battles) regarding whether AI—and notably AI wearables—will "replace" the iPhone. Elon Musk's latest antitrust suit against Apple is examined as evidence of the iPhone’s enduring dominance, highlighting the practical barriers to "super apps" and new hardware taking over the smartphone’s central role.

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1. Smarter Smartphone Security: Fighting Scam Calls & SIM Swaps

Guest: Heidi Mitchell (Consumer Trends Reporter)
Segment: [00:34–05:46]

Key Discussion Points

• Rise in Scam/Spam Calls: Spam calls are increasing, aided by technological tricks like "neighborhood spoofing" (callers masking their number to appear local).
• New Defensive Features in iOS and Android:
  • iOS 26 Call Screening (launching later this month):
    • Screens unknown calls, asks callers to state their name and reason, transcribes message live, and lets you decide whether to pick up.
    • Customizable and opt-in.
    • Quote: “It’s a pretty big level up.” —Heidi Mitchell [01:55]
  • Android’s On-Device AI Security:
    • Uses AI to spot scam patterns—even mid-call—with alerts via vibration, sound, or visuals.
• Ease of Voice Fraud: AI can mimic voices in seconds, tricking people into believing loved ones are calling.
  • Quote: “It takes something like three seconds for an AI to replicate your voice. So it’s really easy for these scammers to make it seem like, oh, it’s your mother calling and she needs you to zelle her some.” —Heidi Mitchell [04:00]
• Virtual SIM Swaps: Scammers can sometimes trick carriers into switching a victim’s number to a new SIM without consent, giving them access to calls and messages.
• Wireless Account Lock:
  • Offered by major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile), but users must opt in.
  • Prevents major changes without user intervention (e.g., SIM swaps, changing billing info).
  • Quote: “It’s like freezing your credit—you can just turn on your AT&T wireless account lock. Verizon and T-Mobile have something similar.” —Heidi Mitchell [05:04]
• Mobile-specific Attacks Are Up: Attacks jumped 50% last year as more of our lives—and especially our security—are managed on mobile devices.

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2. Elon Musk’s Suit Against Apple: The Argument For the iPhone’s Dominance

Guest: Tim Higgins (WSJ Columnist)
Segment: [06:42–11:53]

The Context

• Elon Musk’s App Store Grievances
  • Musk’s acquisition of Twitter (now X) shifted his focus to the app ecosystem, where Apple holds significant gatekeeper power.
  • Despite an apparent peace in 2022 (when Tim Cook reassured Musk that X wouldn't be banned from the App Store), tension persists due to:
    • Apple’s 15–30% revenue share on digital services.
    • Strict control over app content and distribution.
  • The Apple–OpenAI partnership intensifies Musk’s frustrations, especially given his personal rivalry with Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO).
  • Quote: “Apple has a very powerful hand in controlling how businesses operate in the app economy.” —Tim Higgins [07:41]

Can AI Really Replace the Smartphone?

• The Futurist View (Zuckerberg & Others):
  • AI will shift users away from smartphones to new interfaces—especially voice-based or glasses/wearable tech.
  • Meta sees smart glasses as the future’s “perfect form factor,” while OpenAI teases an undisclosed device.
• The Counterpoint: The iPhone as Irreplaceable Anchor
  • Smartphones (iPhone, Samsung/Android) are essential, personal, and deeply entrenched.
  • The leap to a wearable/AI-centric device isn’t close; adoption and form-factor challenges remain.
  • Quote: “This is a personal device that is with them everywhere. This is central to the modern life.” —Tim Higgins [09:14]
  • Apple CEO Tim Cook remains bullish on iPhone relevance and hints at new projects but not a shift away from smartphones.

Musk’s Super App Dreams: A Reality Check

• The Vision: Musk aims for X to replicate China’s WeChat—a do-everything “super app” dissolving the importance of hardware ecosystems.
• The Reality: Despite progress, X is still far from WeChat’s dominance, especially given Western reliance on Apple’s tightly integrated ecosystem.
  • Quote: “Outside of China, it’s very hard to point to a really successful super app…in a lot of ways, the Apple ecosystem is the super app for Western consumers.” —Tim Higgins [10:58]

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3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On security features becoming more advanced and essential:
  “Every single one of my passwords are on there. So we need to guard with every tool we could possibly use.”
  —Heidi Mitchell [05:26]
• Musk’s legal fight revealing Apple’s enduring strength:
  “Musk’s lawsuit is actually a ringing endorsement of the iPhone’s staying power.”
  —Patrick Coffey [06:42]
• On the slow pace of paradigm shift:
  “The power of the super app in China has elevated that ecosystem beyond the Apple hardware or…Android hardware and has given users the ability to switch devices very easily…In a lot of ways, the Apple ecosystem is the super app for Western consumers.”
  —Tim Higgins [10:58]

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4. Key Timestamps

• [00:34] – Introduction to call and scam protection features
• [01:55] – Breakdown of Apple’s new call screening (iOS 26)
• [02:49] – Android’s AI-powered scam detection
• [04:00] – How AI-enabled voice fraud and SIM swaps work
• [05:04] – Wireless account lock: How and why to use it
• [06:42] – Musk’s legal feud with Apple and big tech’s AI ambitions
• [07:41] – Apple's gatekeeper power and why it bothers Musk
• [09:14] – Will AI glasses or wearables unseat the smartphone?
• [10:58] – Reality check on the U.S. super app landscape

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5. Summary Takeaways

• Smartphones Are Getting Smarter at Protecting Us: With scam calls rising, both Apple and Android are embedding smarter, AI-powered defensive tools.
• Carriers offer robust protections, but they're opt-in: Many people are unaware they must activate account-level locks.
• Musk’s complaints highlight the entrenched dominance of the iPhone/app store model, not its imminent demise.
• Despite hype, neither AI wearables nor “super apps” are close to replacing the iPhone’s central role—especially outside of China.
• The Western “super app” is, in some sense, already here, embedded in Apple’s ecosystem.

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For tech-watchers and consumers alike, the episode argues convincingly that, for now, the iPhone is going nowhere—no matter what Musk (or his rivals) might hope.

Transcript

[A]

At the moment, AI can help you search for business advice, but it can't step in to help if things take a bad turn. But how about quickly finding an AI expert who can? Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem helps you connect with top industrial AI providers and find innovative solutions from a single trusted source. That's AI for real. From the global market leader in industrial AI, Siemens. Learn more on USA.Siemens.com AI.

[B]

Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, September 5th. I'm Patrick Coffey for the Wall Street Journal. Will AI glasses make you forget all about your iPhone addiction? Mark Zuckerberg hopes so, but an unlikely figure just threw cold water on that dream in court. Hint, it's Elon Musk. And speaking of smartphones, tech and telecom giants are making it easier than ever for you to protect yourself from scam calls and theft. But will you take them up on that offer? It's not just you. Those never ending spam calls really are growing more common and someone out there is picking up when the fraudsters ring. Now for the good news. Smartphone makers and telecommunications companies keep rolling out new services to protect yourself and your data from would be criminals. Big carriers like Verizon and AT&T even allow you to completely lock your wireless accounts. The catch is these features come as a surprise to a lot of people. So here to walk us through them is Heidi Mitchell. She covers consumer trends for the Journal and other publications. Heidi iPhones have for some time labeled possible spam calls, and even the older versions of the OS seem to be getting better at doing that. How will Apple's new OS be different?

[C]

Well, they're actually rolling out all these new features with iOS 26, which comes out later this month. But you're right, they do have a lot of things already baked in there. Like scam likely is what they say. But now they're gonna add this new feature called call screening, which it screens all calls that are not in your contact, even if you're on a call. It'll ask callers to state their name and reason and then transcribe that message on your screen and then you can decide whether or not to pick it up. You have to opt into this feature and then it's fully customizable, but it's a pretty big level up.

[B]

The Android real Time security tool is fascinating to me because I've been under the impression that the best way to prevent call based fraud is to encourage people not to answer their phones at all. Is there a sense that the answer rates are simply too high? And like That's a, a lost battle already.

[C]

Do you use your phone as a phone? I feel like I barely do. I barely answer calls on my phone. It seems like they're all scams all the time and they're masking their numbers with what they call neighborhood spoofs and so it looks like it's coming from nearby. So there's all kinds of tricks that scammers are using, but Android is doing really good stuff. So they're putting AI now onto your phone and then it will flag it if it feels like it's a scam, even while you're speaking. Typically before would say like, oh, we recognize lottery or urgent or certain words that were tip offs. But now it can learn that there are these patterns that scammers are using that are word patterns that they can recognize across a conversation and then it'll alert you via vibration or sound or visual warning.

[B]

You make a great point about how we use our phones, but clearly a number of people still answer these calls. And you hear stories about parents, for example, answering calls where they simulate the voices of their children and say they've been kidnapped and things like that. That always occurs to me, like, who is answering these calls?

[C]

I mean, you get a call from your kid and it seems like you're going to answer that call, right? And it takes something like three seconds for an AI to replicate your voice. So it's really easy for these scammers to make it seem like, oh, it's your mother calling and she needs you to zelle her some. Or they can do things like do a virtual SIM swap. Your SIM card is now an esim. It's virtual. And so they can convince the carrier to swap out the SIM for their own SIM card. And then it looks like your son is calling you or your mom is calling you and you'll pick it up and you'll be like, oh my gosh, of course I'll sell you some money or whatever.

[A]

But.

[C]

So there's now new protections involved at the phone level that will protect you from things like SIM swaps.

[B]

Reading the story, it seemed like the wireless account lock from AT&T would be most effective because it's locking your entire wireless account so that invasive interactions like the SIM swaps can't be completed until you unlock it.

[C]

That's right. And actually all of the major carriers offer this and all of them are opt in. One of the experts I spoke to said it's like freezing your credit so you can just turn on your AT and T wireless account lock verizon and T Mobile have something similar and they prevent big transactions like a SIM swap or changing your address or changing your credit card or whatever. And you know, to your point earlier about all these new scams, last year mobile specific attacks were up 50%. So it's really starting with the phone now because we use it for everything, right? Our whole, entire lives are on there. Every single one of my passwords are on there. So we need to guard with every tool we could possibly use.

[B]

That was WSG contributor Heidi Mitchell. Coming up, the latest chapter in Elon Musk's legal fight against Apple might double as a strong argument for the iPhone's continued dominance, whether he likes it or not. That's after the break.

[A]

At the moment, AI can help you search for business advice, but it can't step in to help if things take a bad turn. But how about quickly finding an AI expert who can? Siemens Accelerator Ecosystem helps you connect with top industrial AI providers and find innovative solutions from a single trusted source. That's AI for real. From the global market leader in industrial AI, Siemens. Learn more on USA.Siemens.com AI.

[B]

Elon Musk got into the app business when he acquired Twitter a few years ago, and since then he's had a very public beef with Apple, whose App Store serves as the top gatekeeper to that very big and very profitable industry. His latest antitrust suit argues that Apple's policies, and particularly the company's relationship with rival OpenAI, damage his own plans to build a super app. The twist in this AI powered saga? A number of big tech names are betting that AI will soon make the iPhone about as relevant as your MySpace account. But WSJ columnist and Bold Names podcast co host Tim Higgins says Musk's lawsuit is actually a ringing endorsement of the iPhone's staying power. Tim's with us now to discuss this bullish take. So Tim Apple CEO Tim Cook effectively placated Musk back in 2022 by ensuring him that Apple never planned to ban X from the App Store. Why didn't that peace agreement last?

[D]

There's been tensions between Musk and Apple, really, since Musk got into the app game with his acquisition of Twitter, which became X. Yes, there was a seeming detente early on, but ultimately Apple has a very powerful hand in controlling how businesses operate in the app economy. Musk isn't the first tech company out there to complain about that power, whether it's the 15 to 30% revenue share that Apple takes for companies that are doing digital services in the app economy or the rules that they have to follow that Apple says are important to ensuring user safety and kind of the user experience. Musk has been trying to push back against that power ever since. What we see now with the emergence of Apple teamed up with OpenAI is an extension of that kind of bubbling fight. But it is probably made more intense by the fact that Musk has a huge beef with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI that spans many, many years.

[B]

So many Silicon Valley bigwigs like Mark Zuckerberg, they argue that AI will render the iPhone irrelevant. But wouldn't that require a new form of AI driven communications product? And have we seen any such ideas from the bigger names in AI that might inspire the kind of adoption required to make this thesis a reality?

[D]

Yeah, you think about the iPhone or the smartphone in general. Think of Samsung's phone, which runs on Android, the operating system offered by Google. These devices are your daily users to accessing the digital world. For so many people, this is a personal device that is with them everywhere. This is central to the modern life. And what people like Zuckerberg and others in big tech are betting is that AI will usher in a new computer paradigm that will displace the smartphone as the central part of your life, in part because they think that how you interact with AI or computers, if you will, will just be a different form factor. It won't be through the touchscreen, it will be through voice. Potentially you might still be able to see things, but it perhaps will be through glasses or something like that. What Meta Zuckerberg's company is betting is that the perfect device, the perfect form factor, will be glasses. OpenAI is also talking about a device that it has been teasing. We don't know what it looks like or how it will work. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, he would argue that the iPhone will remain relevant, that it still has a bright future, and has said the company is working on other things, or at least has hinted at the idea that the company is working on other things.

[B]

Going back to Altman and OpenAI, Musk has essentially argued that their relationship with Apple makes it harder for him to realize his vision of X as a super app, where consumers do everything from scrolling the news to managing their finances. Is there any sign that he's closer to that goal than he was a year or two ago?

[D]

If you were to talk to people at X, they would like to tout some of the advancements they have made. But if you're thinking about it as WeChat, which is the way that Musk has described what his vision is, yeah, they're still far away from that. WeChat is a very powerful super app created by Tencent, a Chinese company. In China, the version of WeChat is ubiquitous. The power of the super app in China has elevated that ecosystem beyond the Apple hardware or the Android hardware and has given users the ability to switch devices very easily and you see less lock in outside of China. It's very hard to point to a really successful super app in Europe or in the US In a lot of ways, the Apple ecosystem is the super app for Western consumers.

[B]

That was WSJ columnist Tim Higgins. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show is produced by Julie Chang. I'm your host, Patrick Coffey. Additional support this week from Melanie Royce, Jessica Fenton and Michael Lavall wrote our theme music. Our development producer is Ayesha Al Muslim, Chris Sinsley is the deputy editor and Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of News audio. We'll be back later this morning with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.

[A]

At the moment, AI can help you search for business advice, but it can't step in to help if things take a bad turn. But how about quickly finding an AI expert who can? Siemens Accelerator Ecosystem helps you connect with top industrial AI providers and find innovative solutions from a single trusted source. That's AI for real from the global market leader in industrial AI, Siemens. Learn more on USA.Siemens.com AI.