I return to my favourite writer, John Thornhill, and borrow from him that rare glint of insight. When he replaced the Strait of Hormuz with Apple, the analogy seemed exaggerated at first glance, almost too bold. But the more one contemplates it, the more its precision reveals itself.

The Strait of Hormuz is not merely a waterway; it is a choke point of power, a bottleneck through which energy flows and from which the world is watched.

Apple, in Thornhill’s metaphor, performs the same function—only in the digital geography. When it comes to how artificial intelligence is deployed in consumer services, Apple controls the technological equivalent of the Strait of Hormuz. Not because it is always the most innovative, nor because it leads the AI race, but because it owns the passage—the passage to the user.

Apple can be both partner and toll collector, much like the strait itself. It can license a third‑party model, wrap it in its own cloud‑based service, and take a cut of every subscription sold through the App Store.

And just as a fifth of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz, Apple’s platforms, App Store rules, and sheer volume of transactions give it immense power to shape entire markets, tax them, or redirect them altogether.

And just as a fifth of the world’s oil passes through Hormuz, Apple’s platforms, App Store rules, and sheer volume of transactions give it immense power to shape entire markets, tax them, or redirect them altogether.

This analysis arrives at a delicate moment—one filled with speculation about Apple’s future leadership. Tim Cook, who carried forward the legacy of the late visionary Steve Jobs with quiet managerial discipline,........

© Middle East Monitor