Now Reading: Apple teams with Alibaba’s Qwen AI for Mac users in China
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Apple teams with Alibaba’s Qwen AI for Mac users in China
Apple has published a guide for Mac users in mainland China to link Siri and Writing Tools with Alibaba's Qwen AI, a move aimed at boosting its position in a competitive PC…
The Story in Brief
Apple has published a guide for Mac users in mainland China to link Siri and Writing Tools with Alibaba's Qwen AI, a move aimed at boosting its position in a competitive PC market. The tool works on macOS 26.6 or later, requires a Qwen account, and will not allow Alibaba to use user data for training its models.
The partnership comes as Apple faces headwinds in China, where Mac shipments fell 9% year-on-year in the first quarter to 8 lakh units, giving it a 9% market share. Lenovo leads with 31%, while fast-growing Huawei holds 16%. Alibaba has said Qwen will also power Apple Intelligence on iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro in China, though only the Mac integration is live for now.
The Indian Opinion
The Qwen deal shows Apple finally bending to Chinese rules on AI, but it also exposes a deeper weakness: its own models are not good enough to compete on their own. Critics call it a data surrender; supporters say it is the only way to sell iPhones in a market where Huawei and Lenovo already offer local AI. The real test is not Beijing's approval, but whether users even notice the difference between Siri and Qwen when they ask for directions or draft an email.
Sources (2): timesnownews.com, thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
