With less than three weeks to the launch of the Pixel 10, several rumors have made their way online, like the 12GB of RAM (for the base model), Tensor G5 chip, and the four model lineup, including the 10, 10 Pro, Pro XL, and Pro Fold. Even Google itself recently teased the whole thing. Now, the company has released a 30-second ad mocking Apple and its AI woes, especially with Apple Intelligence.
In the ad, Apple was not mentioned directly, but you do not need to be a genius to put two and two together to see that it was probably aimed at Apple. Over stylized shots of the new Pixel 10, a narrator says, "If you buy a new phone because of a feature that"s coming soon, but it"s been coming soon for a full year, you could change your definition of soon, or you could just ... change your phone".
Apple Intelligence was unveiled with huge fanfare at WWDC24 alongside iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, positioned as a killer feature for the iPhone 16 series. The promise of a better Siri that could understand context and perform actions across apps was central to the pitch.
But the company has been struggling with the rollout of the new Siri so much that, a year later, it is reportedly considering outside help from AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic to power the assistant. This is a situation that probably vindicates something employees complained about back in October last year: that Apple was years behind its competitors.
The problem is compounded by the fact that it is losing brainpower to rivals, thanks to Zuck"s aggressive poaching efforts. Meta has successfully nabbed key talent like Ruoming Pang, the former head of Apple"s foundation models team, after the social media giant reportedly offered him a compensation package worth over $200 million.
This is not the first time Google"s gone straight for Apple"s jugular. The company built entire campaigns around its "Night Sight" camera superiority and memorably parodied Jony Ive"s iconic design videos for the Pixel 5a. That ad featured a dramatic monologue about the simple perfection of the circle, delivered in Ive"s signature hushed tone, only to reveal that the "perfect circle" was the humble 3.5mm headphone jack.
The new ad comes just after Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that Apple "must win" in AI during the company"s fiscal Q3 2025 earnings call.