Apple Could Keep Every iPhone Sale Yet Lose Discovery Referral, BofA Warns — Says Muse Concerns Are Overdone

• BofA views Apple as an eventual winner of AI at the edge.
• Morgan Stanley said iPhone 18 Pro lead times remain broadly flat year over year despite 18% higher premium builds.
• Apple officially began selling the iPhone 18 Pro lineup on Sept. 18.

Bank of America reiterated its ‘Buy’ rating on Apple Inc. (AAPL), saying concerns around Meta Platforms Inc.’s Muse AI agent are overdone even as it acknowledged a new risk to Apple’s role in how consumers discover products and start transactions.

BofA says that with Muse, which reached the top of the U.S. iOS free-app chart and cleared 2.5M downloads in its first two weeks, Meta is now where a growing number of iPhone owners express intent first, per TheFly.

Whoever owns the agent collects the routing economics that previously accrued to operating systems, search, and app stores, it said, adding, “The risk for Apple is that it can keep every handset sale and still lose discovery, referral, and transaction initiation”.  

Despite those emerging risks, the firm said it views Apple as an “eventual winner of AI at the edge.”

At the time of this writing, AAPL stock traded more than 1% lower, around $333, in early trading on Tuesday.

What Muse Changes

Meta describes Muse as a personal AI agent that can take actions on a user’s behalf, including handling tasks such as sending emails, booking travel and making purchases.

BofA’s note focuses on whether third-party AI agents could increasingly sit between users and the services, products and transactions they access through those devices.

Apple, meanwhile, has been expanding its own AI capabilities. Siri AI, launched this month, is deeply integrated across iPhone and other Apple devices and can use personal context, understand onscreen content and take actions across apps.

iPhone 18 Demand Remains Healthy

The AI debate comes as analysts continue to see relatively healthy early demand for Apple’s latest premium iPhones.

Morgan Stanley said that 14 days after pre-orders opened, global iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max lead times remained broadly flat year over year despite Apple building 18% more premium units, according to TheFly. 

The firm said its supply-chain checks had not indicated any order cuts and maintained an ‘Overweight’ rating with a $360 price target.

Earlier this month, UBS said iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max wait times were essentially flat year over year outside China. 

Its data showed wait times improving modestly week over week, although China remained the main area of weakness, per TheFly. The firm kept a ‘Neutral’ rating on Apple stock with a $296 target.

Apple officially began selling the iPhone 18 Pro lineup on Sept. 18. The company entered the launch cycle with momentum in its core business. Fiscal third-quarter revenue (Q3) rose 16% year-over-year to $109.4 billion, with Apple reporting June-quarter records for iPhone and Services revenue.

What Retail Thinks Of AAPL Stock

Apple is the best-performing Mag 7 stock so far in 2026. However, retail investor sentiment around the stock remained in the ‘bearish’ territory on Stocktwits. 

So far this year, APPL stock has rallied nearly 23%. In comparison, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) and the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT), which hold APPL stock, have risen around 10% and 37%, respectively, over the same period.

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