(Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Apple’s smartphone market share jumped to a world-leading 20% in 2025

Here’s what Dan Ives says the iPhone maker has to do to reach Wedbush’s $350 price target this year.

2025 was a great one for Apple, whose global smartphone market share jumped to 20%, besting Samsung and making it the top-selling brand in the world by shipments, new data from Counterpoint Research shows.

2026 could be a great one for Apple, too, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives — if the company focuses on four things the analyst laid out in a note Monday morning.

To reach Wedbush’s $350 price target, a 35% premium to where Apple is currently trading, Ives said the company must:

1) Make Google Gemini the “exclusive” partner for Apple’s AI strategy, which has heretofore languished using the company’s own models. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to pay Google $1 billion a year to use its Gemini AI model to power Siri.

2) Release an actually good revamped Siri on time. That means the updated Siri, expected this spring, must finally deliver the personalized features and deep system integration Apple promised two years ago. Ives also expects Apple to launch an “AI subscription service” this summer that would function as an additional revenue stream for the company’s growing and lucrative Services segment.

3) Continue its iPhone 17 success with the iPhone 18. Ives thinks 2026 iPhone unit sales will “handily exceed current Street estimates,” which FactSet’s analyst consensus currently pegs at around 245 million, compared with about 233 million last year. Driving the success of the iPhone 18, Ives said, will be the foldable option as well as average selling prices, which he expects to rise $100 on Pro models.

4) Announce that CEO Tim Cook is staying on. Lately, news reports and prediction markets have rallied around Apple hardware chief John Ternus as Apple’s next CEO, saying the company has accelerated its CEO succession plans. Ives said that Apple must say otherwise and put a stop to that chatter since the company is in an “integral period for Cupertino to design and execute on its broader AI Revolution strategy.” Ives expects Cook to continue as CEO “at least through the end of 2027.”

Taken together, Ives sees 2026 as a long-awaited “prove-it” year for Apple — one where AI ambition, iPhone execution, and leadership stability all need to line up to justify the stock’s next leg higher.

Jon Keegan1h

Apple selects Google’s Gemini to power Siri, CNBC reports

Apple has selected Google’s Gemini model as part of a multiyear partnership to power its revamped, AI-powered Siri, set to launch this year.

Per a statement seen by CNBC, Apple said: “After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users.”

Apple first announced a revamped AI Siri back in June 2024 but failed to execute on many of its promises of personalized features and deep system integration. The newest iteration of Siri was expected this spring. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple plans to pay Google $1 billion a year to use its AI model to power Siri.

With this news, the iPhone maker has ticked one of the four boxes that Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said would be integral to the stock’s success in 2026.

“This is what the Street has been waiting for with the elephant in the room for Cupertino revolving around its invisible AI strategy,” Ives wrote in a follow-up note, calling the move a “major validation moment for Google as a premier foundation model and for Apple as a stepping stone to accelerate its AI strategy into 2026 and beyond.”

Google, which has been riding high on the the stellar reception of its latest Gemini model, briefly notched a $4 trillion market cap on the news. Apple hit the notable milestone in 2025 but has since fallen and is currently worth $3.8 trillion.

Apple picks Google's Gemini to run AI-powered Siri coming this year

With this news, the iPhone maker has ticked one of the four boxes that Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said would be integral to the stock’s success in 2026.

850M

Rani Molla1h

Apple’s App Store saw an average of 850 million weekly active users at the end of 2025, up from 813 million last June, underscoring the sheer scale of its Services business even as hardware growth has slowed. The company highlighted the milestone in a year-end Services roundup, noting record App Store traffic across major markets including the US, China, India, and Japan.

Apple takes a cut of most digital transactions that run through its App Store payment system, making growth there a key driver of its increasingly important Services segment.

Apple also indicated record Apple TV viewership and Apple Music listenership, but did not disclose specific figures.

Jon Keegan2h

Anthropic rolls out health features, following OpenAI

Healthcare is turning out to be a key battleground as AI companies race to roll out new features in their quest to lure new users to their platforms.

Last week, OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, in response to the 40 million health-related queries per day that the chatbot answers. The consumer-focused feature lets users connect health apps and upload medical records securely for the chatbot to analyze and explain.

Today Anthropic unveiled Claude for Healthcare, which offers similar features while also serving healthcare providers. The company described the new product as a “set of tools and resources that allow health care providers, payers, and consumers to use Claude for medical purposes through HIPAA-ready products.”

The company said the feature can be used by healthcare providers to speed up prior authorization requests, build stronger claims appeals, and coordinate patient care.

Patients can connect to systems to access their medical records and lab results, share health data securely from health apps, and “detect patterns” from health metrics.

Anthropic also expanded its existing Claude for Life Sciences product, enabling new connections to additional scientific platforms to support clinical trial management and regulatory work.

Advancing Claude in healthcare and the life sciences

The company said the feature can be used by healthcare providers to speed up prior authorization requests, build stronger claims appeals, and coordinate patient care.

Patients can connect to systems to access their medical records and lab results, share health data securely from health apps, and “detect patterns” from health metrics.

Anthropic also expanded its existing Claude for Life Sciences product, enabling new connections to additional scientific platforms to support clinical trial management and regulatory work.

Rani Molla2h

Meta appoints former Trump adviser Dina Powell McCormick as first-ever president and vice chairman

Meta announced Monday that Dina Powell McCormick, a longtime Goldman Sachs executive who served on Meta’s board for eight months before resigning in late 2025 and was the deputy national security adviser during the first Trump administration, has been appointed the company’s first-ever president and vice chairman.

President Trump congratulated McCormick on Truth Social, calling her appointment a “great choice by Mark Z!!!” and saying she’s a “fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said her “experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth.” That role will include building capital partnerships to help fund Meta’s massive AI infrastructure investments. Powell is married to GOP Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, a former executive at the hedge fund Bridgewater.