The Return of the Preload: How AI Partnerships Mirror the Mobile Carrier Playbook
Hardware manufacturers are now stakeholders in the future success of new AI platforms.
From 2010 to 2015, getting preloaded on mobile devices was the holy grail of app distribution. The mechanics were straightforward: partner with carriers, get your app bundled with new phones, and acquire users at a negligible CAC.
The golden age of carrier preloads
Facebook perfected this strategy at global scale.
As Chamath Palihapitiya explained in a 2010 Mobile World Congress presentation, Facebook built a mobile global distribution network of 200 mobile operators that was the envy of competitors: 100 million monthly active mobile users (25% of their user base) and partnerships with carriers to offer "Facebook Zero" - a free, data-charge-exempt version of their mobile site.
The results were tangible. After Vodafone UK offered a one-week free trial of “Facebook Zero” 20% more customers upgraded to Vodafone’s paid data plans.
Facebook wasn’t just acquiring users for themselves - they were also converting feature phone users to smartphones, driving vast revenue growth for carriers.
These preload deals weren't just about messaging and “like” buttons. Facebook negotiated system-level OS integration with device manufacturers, threading “Facebook DNA into the core operating system.”
By 2010, Facebook’s mobile reach touched 200 million users - 50% of their active users interacted with mobile products.
The new preload playbook, for AI
Fast forward to 2025 and the same distribution dynamics are emerging around AI assistants and search experiences. Samsung’s reported investment in Perplexity AI, combined with preloading their apps on Galaxy devices, isn’t just any old partnership - it’s the mobile carrier preload playbook adapted for the AI era.
The mechanics look similar to 2010. Hardware manufacturers provide default placement and OS-level integration, AI companies get friction-free user acquisition, users get next-gen AI experiences without discovering and downloading new apps.
But the distribution effects will scale even faster this time.
Samsung shipped 222.9 million smartphones in 2024. If just 5% of these users adopt Perplexity as their default AI interface, that’s over 11 million new Perplexity subscribers - comparable to OpenAI’s reported ChatGPT Plus subscriber base.
Distribution, devices, and defaults
What makes today’s AI preload deals different from the carrier era is the platform layer they’re targeting. Spotify’s carrier partnerships enabled music discovery and consumption. Facebook’s preloads enabled social networking and communication.
AI assistants are about information access itself - the fundamental interface between users and the digital world. If Samsung preloads Perplexity, they’re not just distributing an app. They can potentially reshape how millions of people - young and old - discover information and interact with their devices. In every corner of the planet.
Amazon’s approach with Anthropic represents another evolution of the preload concept. By committing $8 billion to integrate Claude into AWS Bedrock and Alexa, Amazon isn’t just distributing an AI assistant. They’re making Claude the default choice - “core infrastructure” - for enterprise developers and consumers alike.
Defaults matter enormously for user adoption. Users don’t like friction. Which is why most users don’t actively seek out new apps, AI assistants or search experiences.
They lean into and trust what’s already integrated into their devices and workflows.
Samsung, Microsoft, and Amazon all recognize this behavioral reality. The difference between 15 years ago and today is that these partnerships aren’t just about app distribution - they’re oriented around shaping how we use AI in our daily lives.
The timing couldn’t be any better. Smartphones remain a “goldilocks device” with strong usage and utility inside and outside of the home. But the purchase intent of smartphones - and other devices - is static or declining. AI integration offers hardware manufacturers new options to differentiate devices, develop new form factors, and launch new subscription businesses.
Hardware manufacturers are back in the game
The smartphone era taught hardware manufacturers a painful lesson: controlling the hardware isn’t always guarantee of platform value capture. Facebook and Google built trillion-dollar businesses while manufacturers like Nokia and BlackBerry struggled to survive.
Samsung’s partnership strategy with Perplexity signals a different approach. Rather than just facilitating distribution for a new wave of AI platforms, they’re positioning themselves as investors - stakeholders in the future success of these new platforms.
Today’s AI partnerships will work for the same reasons mobile carrier partnerships worked 15 years ago. But this time, the stakes are much higher.
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