Siri may only get minor Apple Intelligence improvements before iOS 19

AppleInsider

A new report claims that certain Apple Intelligence improvements to Siri have been delayed to May 2025, and that may take until 2027 before there is a significant update.

Siri has gained a new animation around the edge of iPhone screens but real improvements are much delayed

Siri was supposed to adopt Apple Intelligence features from iOS 18.4, but following rumors of delays, the first developer beta of that shipped without any Siri changes. It's possible that the improvements will come in later rounds of the iOS 18.4 beta testing, but Bloomberg now says Apple is far behind on its AI plans.

The new claim is that Siri will now get the promised integration with Apple Intelligence in May 2025. This first round of improvements was seeming meant to be the one where, as in Apple's now months-old ads, a user could ask Siri the name of someone they met before and it would read their calendar for the answer.

It's not at all clear whether that type of feature will come in May, and there's reason to doubt it since the report further says that Siri is for now remaining an unfinished hybrid of its old and new systems. So the Siri of old that could search the web, set timers and so on is said to be existing alongside the new, more AI-based system.

That fits with how in iOS 18.4 Siri will, with permission, pass user requests to ChatGPT -- but fruitlessly. Siri is also now noticeably worse at its old strengths in the developer beta of iOS 18.4.

Reportedly, Apple plans to properly merge the two strands of Siri into a single system, but it now won't do that until a version of iOS 19 that's due in Spring 2026. More, it's possible that there will not be any new user-facing Apple Intelligence features in any iteration of iOS 19.

That's because the expectation now is that Apple will still be trying to get its initial Apple Intelligence promises working. If true, that means there will be solely behind-the-scenes improvements to Apple Intelligence until at least mid-2026 and quite possibly into 2027.

For WWDC 2025, Apple had also been expected to show off a more conversational form of Siri. That, too, is no longer believed to be ready by June and will have to be announced later.

The report posits that these delays Apple is already far behind its competitors, and in particular is being trounced by Amazon with its yet to launch updated Alexa.

Rumor Score: Possible

Read on AppleInsider

applepoor

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

studiosoup

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

For what it’s worth, as an Apple fan/user since the 1980s and investor since the 1990s, I 100% agree with this assessment. It’s honestly sad to see. I keep thinking maybe this’ll be the year they break out of the incremental rut, only to be disappointed once again. 

Vision Pro seemed like something of a return to form (a bold new product with a lot of buzz), but has seemingly been treated as an afterthought following the launch and I no longer have faith Apple will aggressively refine its form factor and push further development of the spacial platform. Also, although it’s an impressive product, the hardware launched with some design tradeoffs not typical of Apple, such as its weight and external battery situation. And the fact that Apple pursued VR style googles instead of AR style glasses out of the gate is also something of a questionable strategic decision. AR glasses done well clearly have a much larger market opportunity than bulky VR goggles. 

And they are riding the iPhone similarly to how Microsoft rode Windows in the 1990s. Complacent in their success and seemingly too scared or bloated to take risks while the world innovates around them. Let me guess, the next iPhone will feature better cameras, a more powerful processor, and perhaps be thinner or feature a new button or something? Whoop dee do. 

daalseth

I don’t think I’m alone in not being in any hurry to see them overhaul Siri. It does what I want. I don’t want to carry on a conversation with my phone. I ask it to do something, it does it. I ask it a simple question, it gives me the info. I really don’t want any more than that. 

canukstorm

DAalseth said:

I don’t think I’m alone in not being in any hurry to see them overhaul Siri. It does what I want. I don’t want to carry on a conversation with my phone. I ask it to do something, it does it. I ask it a simple question, it gives me the info. I really don’t want any more than that. 

If this report is correct and we don't see an overhaul Siri until iOS 20, then it's too little, too late.  Apple may as well sign a licensing deal with Anthropic, Google, or whoever to integrate the latter's AI tech into Apple's platforms.

canukstorm

StudioSoup said:

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

For what it’s worth, as an Apple fan/user since the 1980s and investor since the 1990s, I 100% agree with this assessment. It’s honestly sad to see. I keep thinking maybe this’ll be the year they break out of the incremental rut, only to be disappointed once again. 

Vision Pro seemed like something of a return to form (a bold new product with a lot of buzz), but has seemingly been treated as an afterthought following the launch and I no longer have faith Apple will aggressively refine its form factor and push further development of the spacial platform. Also, although it’s an impressive product, the hardware launched with some design tradeoffs not typical of Apple, such as its weight and external battery situation. And the fact that Apple pursued VR style googles instead of AR style glasses out of the gate is also something of a questionable strategic decision. AR glasses done well clearly have a much larger market opportunity than bulky VR goggles. 

And they are riding the iPhone similarly to how Microsoft rode Windows in the 1990s. Complacent in their success and seemingly too scared or bloated to take risks while the world innovates around them. Let me guess, the next iPhone will feature better cameras, a more powerful processor, and perhaps be thinner or feature a new button or something? Whoop dee do. 

"AR glasses done well clearly have a much larger market opportunity than bulky VR goggles" => I agree with this but the issue with doing AR glasses well, is that the technology has to miniaturize to the point where AR glasses don't look too bulky or dorky.  They have to look fashionable, in addition to being functional.  The technology to do this is still a few years away.

charlesn

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

Another Apple vet here, using Macs at work and home since the Macintosh Classic in 1991. It's not that I disagree, per se, with this assessment, but it's a reminder that perceptions in the tech press and by commenters on tech message boards like this one are often completely disconnected from the reality of how Apple is actually doing as a company. In three words: "Better than ever" by any of the usual metrics by which the performance of companies is measured. Something astonishing, almost unthinkable a short time ago just happened when Apple reported earnings for the holiday quarter: its iPhone numbers were a little soft, which would have normally tanked the stock, but this time, it didn't matter. Why? Because its insanely profitable Services business is growing so rapidly and is essentially a license to print money. Under Tim Cook, Apple has transitioned from a one-legged company whose fortunes rose and fell with iPhone, to a company with three sturdy legs: iPhone, Services (which will surpass iPhone in profit and revenues sooner than later) and Hardware, including Macs, iPads and wearables. Fun fact: even with numbers that were a little soft, iPhone 16 is the best-selling smartphone in the world, while Pro Max, Pro and Plus occupy 3 more spots in the top ten rankings in that order. So you might ask yourself how a phone that is supposedly "an embarrassment" compared to competitors becomes the best-selling smartphone on the planet, especially at a relatively high price point. 

Did I mention that this past holiday quarter was yet another all-time record?  Kind of a yawn, for Apple, I know, because it keeps setting new records like this, but: this only happens because buyers are voting with their wallets to choose Apple products. Here in the technosphere echo chamber, it's the constant sound of doom and complaints about the glacial pace of Apple evolving its products. But the real world of mass market buyers keeps disagreeing. 

Apple does face the problem of being more cumbersome battleship than nimble destroyer--that is the inevitable challenge all companies face when they grow to the enormous size of Apple. Even more difficult: Wall Street continues to price Apple stock like a growth company, so even as it keeps breaking records for revenue and profit, the challenge of continuing to grow those huge numbers just gets exponentially harder... but Apple keeps doing it thus far. Tech message boards have been predicting doom just around the corner for Apple for as long as the company has been in business. It has weirdly become the always-present background noise to Apple's continued success. Just how much more successful does Apple have to be before the doom-saying gets a rest?

edited March 2

stabitha_christie

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

Apple has been integrating AI features for the better part of a decade, can you clarify which AI feature is years away from being usable? Is it Face ID, AFib detection, object recognition in photos, workout detection, auto complete, noise cancelation ?  And would it be possible to articulate what AI feature Apple users don't have access to? 

m4m40

The gradual and slow rollout of AI and Siri updates are so painful .. I struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Siri is so embarrassingly bad and useless and this mini updates are just not enough. How can a $1T justify this snail pace rollout of updates over one year and then still not provide anything to be proud of. 

king editor the grate

Good gravy, Siri has become exponentially dumber over the years. Its latest stunt has been – when I've asked "When was Megadeth's System Has Failed released?" and "When did Alfred Jodl die?" – has been to answer "If you think it could be serious, ask me to call Emergency Services or someone you trust."

I experienced the latest inability to provide my ETA while driving bug on a recent, rare venture out of town, as well as the ol' classic "Here's what I found" offer of a bunch of websites on my Watch rather than just giving me the answer, resulting in fetching my telephony from pocket to Bing up a storm like some kind of animal.

studiosoup

charlesn said:

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

Another Apple vet here, using Macs at work and home since the Macintosh Classic in 1991. It's not that I disagree, per se, with this assessment, but it's a reminder that perceptions in the tech press and by commenters on tech message boards like this one are often completely disconnected from the reality of how Apple is actually doing as a company. In three words: "Better than ever" by any of the usual metrics by which the performance of companies is measured. Something astonishing, almost unthinkable a short time ago just happened when Apple reported earnings for the holiday quarter: its iPhone numbers were a little soft, which would have normally tanked the stock, but this time, it didn't matter. Why? Because its insanely profitable Services business is growing so rapidly and is essentially a license to print money. Under Tim Cook, Apple has transitioned from a one-legged company whose fortunes rose and fell with iPhone, to a company with three sturdy legs: iPhone, Services (which will surpass iPhone in profit and revenues sooner than later) and Hardware, including Macs, iPads and wearables. Fun fact: even with numbers that were a little soft, iPhone 16 is the best-selling smartphone in the world, while Pro Max, Pro and Plus occupy 3 more spots in the top ten rankings in that order. So you might ask yourself how a phone that is supposedly "an embarrassment" compared to competitors becomes the best-selling smartphone on the planet, especially at a relatively high price point. 

Did I mention that this past holiday quarter was yet another all-time record?  Kind of a yawn, for Apple, I know, because it keeps setting new records like this, but: this only happens because buyers are voting with their wallets to choose Apple products. Here in the technosphere echo chamber, it's the constant sound of doom and complaints about the glacial pace of Apple evolving its products. But the real world of mass market buyers keeps disagreeing. 

Apple does face the problem of being more cumbersome battleship than nimble destroyer--that is the inevitable challenge all companies face when they grow to the enormous size of Apple. Even more difficult: Wall Street continues to price Apple stock like a growth company, so even as it keeps breaking records for revenue and profit, the challenge of continuing to grow those huge numbers just gets exponentially harder... but Apple keeps doing it thus far. Tech message boards have been predicting doom just around the corner for Apple for as long as the company has been in business. It has weirdly become the always-present background noise to Apple's continued success. Just how much more successful does Apple have to be before the doom-saying gets a rest?

I think you’re confusing how Apple is doing vs how Apple stock is doing. Yes, the stock has continued to perform admirably, benefitting from the heavy inflows to the S&P 500 and being viewed as a less volatile safe haven in tech. But revenues have stalled out and plateaued since 2022. 

Its current share price is in fact being buoyed by a p/e of nearly 40! Though off its peak, that’s still historically high for Apple and too rich for a mature company with stalled revenue growth. And I say this as a shareholder. The stock will get hammered when the market corrects and their p/e descends to the low 20s or even high teens where it belongs. Nothing will likely change regarding how they’re conducting business but the company will be worth far less due to this aberration of a multiple coming back down to earth. 

If the underlying company was doing great you’d see more signs of overall revenue growth. One segment (services) growing to try and make up for another, much more profitable segment (iPhones) shrinking is not a good long-term recipe for success.  

fred257

Another long term Apple user since the Apple II in1987and Apple Insider reader since it started in 1996-7.
Apple is currently very profitable. One of the most profitable businesses in history to a tune of 3 trillion dollars.  Tim Cook is the person who has made it this profitable by incremental updates and not so polished devices (Vision Pro, larger MacBooks,16e).  Cooks vision is very different from Jobs. Cook is about profit and Jobs was about innovation and taking chances. But under cooks watch (literally) we have the Apple Watch which is his one claim to fame 

studiosoup

canukstorm said:

StudioSoup said:

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

For what it’s worth, as an Apple fan/user since the 1980s and investor since the 1990s, I 100% agree with this assessment. It’s honestly sad to see. I keep thinking maybe this’ll be the year they break out of the incremental rut, only to be disappointed once again. 

Vision Pro seemed like something of a return to form (a bold new product with a lot of buzz), but has seemingly been treated as an afterthought following the launch and I no longer have faith Apple will aggressively refine its form factor and push further development of the spacial platform. Also, although it’s an impressive product, the hardware launched with some design tradeoffs not typical of Apple, such as its weight and external battery situation. And the fact that Apple pursued VR style googles instead of AR style glasses out of the gate is also something of a questionable strategic decision. AR glasses done well clearly have a much larger market opportunity than bulky VR goggles. 

And they are riding the iPhone similarly to how Microsoft rode Windows in the 1990s. Complacent in their success and seemingly too scared or bloated to take risks while the world innovates around them. Let me guess, the next iPhone will feature better cameras, a more powerful processor, and perhaps be thinner or feature a new button or something? Whoop dee do. 

"AR glasses done well clearly have a much larger market opportunity than bulky VR goggles" => I agree with this but the issue with doing AR glasses well, is that the technology has to miniaturize to the point where AR glasses don't look too bulky or dorky.  They have to look fashionable, in addition to being functional.  The technology to do this is still a few years away.

All the more reason for Apple to have either waited to release glasses until the tech was mature enough, or to aggressively support vision os and push development of the AVP product line in the meantime. I get it that it’s generally supposed to be a developer kit and something of a test case, but they’re not doing a good job pursuing unique content for it, innovating the OS, or convincing developers it’s worth paying attention to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super cool (I’ve owned one since day one!) but I fear Apple is going to treat it similar to other expensive niche launches, such as the AirPods Max or original HomePod. 

charlesn

StudioSoup said:

charlesn said:

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

Another Apple vet here, using Macs at work and home since the Macintosh Classic in 1991. It's not that I disagree, per se, with this assessment, but it's a reminder that perceptions in the tech press and by commenters on tech message boards like this one are often completely disconnected from the reality of how Apple is actually doing as a company. In three words: "Better than ever" by any of the usual metrics by which the performance of companies is measured. Something astonishing, almost unthinkable a short time ago just happened when Apple reported earnings for the holiday quarter: its iPhone numbers were a little soft, which would have normally tanked the stock, but this time, it didn't matter. Why? Because its insanely profitable Services business is growing so rapidly and is essentially a license to print money. Under Tim Cook, Apple has transitioned from a one-legged company whose fortunes rose and fell with iPhone, to a company with three sturdy legs: iPhone, Services (which will surpass iPhone in profit and revenues sooner than later) and Hardware, including Macs, iPads and wearables. Fun fact: even with numbers that were a little soft, iPhone 16 is the best-selling smartphone in the world, while Pro Max, Pro and Plus occupy 3 more spots in the top ten rankings in that order. So you might ask yourself how a phone that is supposedly "an embarrassment" compared to competitors becomes the best-selling smartphone on the planet, especially at a relatively high price point. 

Did I mention that this past holiday quarter was yet another all-time record?  Kind of a yawn, for Apple, I know, because it keeps setting new records like this, but: this only happens because buyers are voting with their wallets to choose Apple products. Here in the technosphere echo chamber, it's the constant sound of doom and complaints about the glacial pace of Apple evolving its products. But the real world of mass market buyers keeps disagreeing. 

Apple does face the problem of being more cumbersome battleship than nimble destroyer--that is the inevitable challenge all companies face when they grow to the enormous size of Apple. Even more difficult: Wall Street continues to price Apple stock like a growth company, so even as it keeps breaking records for revenue and profit, the challenge of continuing to grow those huge numbers just gets exponentially harder... but Apple keeps doing it thus far. Tech message boards have been predicting doom just around the corner for Apple for as long as the company has been in business. It has weirdly become the always-present background noise to Apple's continued success. Just how much more successful does Apple have to be before the doom-saying gets a rest?

I think you’re confusing how Apple is doing vs how Apple stock is doing. 

Not at all. And the notion that the stock price of a company as mature as Apple is somehow disconnected from how the company is doing is misguided at best. The big concern about Apple over the years was what was going to happen when the iPhone juggernaut inevitably slowed down. For a long time, there really wasn't an answer. And here we are, with all phone makers now having to face the post peak smartphone environment. But Apple has delivered an answer to the slowing mobile phone business with Services continuing to grow at a fast pace and at nearly 80% margins. What company wouldn't kill to have a business like that? And I have to ask: if you really feel that Apple isn't doing as well as a company as its stock price would suggest, why are you a shareholder at these prices? That makes no sense. 

stabitha_christie

StudioSoup said:

charlesn said:

ApplePoor said:

Not a surprise really that Apple got caught with their pants down. Too much time and money wasted on the "never saw the light of day" car.  The "googles" have consumed untold resources, too and have not been a runaway success in terms of sales. Frankly, usable Apple's AI is years away and could become a serious concern financially as investors loose confidence.

Apple has morphed from a small and fast Navy Destroyer to a more than cumbersome Battleship. The latter finally gets up to speed and requires vast space to change course or turn around let alone stop.

The incremental changes or improvements in their "core" revenue source, the iPhone, are an embarrassment when one sees what the competitors are pushing out. 

The comments here in the peanut gallery should be a five alarm file in the Board of Directors meetings such as the lack of more and more folks upgrading annually as there is just not enough change to justify a $2,000 expenditure for the top model with full memory - their most profitable model.

The incremental change of their most popular laptop (MacBook Air) is a chip change from the M3 to the M4. Wow! ???????

Just observations of an Apple user since1990 into computers since the early 1970s.

YMMV

Another Apple vet here, using Macs at work and home since the Macintosh Classic in 1991. It's not that I disagree, per se, with this assessment, but it's a reminder that perceptions in the tech press and by commenters on tech message boards like this one are often completely disconnected from the reality of how Apple is actually doing as a company. In three words: "Better than ever" by any of the usual metrics by which the performance of companies is measured. Something astonishing, almost unthinkable a short time ago just happened when Apple reported earnings for the holiday quarter: its iPhone numbers were a little soft, which would have normally tanked the stock, but this time, it didn't matter. Why? Because its insanely profitable Services business is growing so rapidly and is essentially a license to print money. Under Tim Cook, Apple has transitioned from a one-legged company whose fortunes rose and fell with iPhone, to a company with three sturdy legs: iPhone, Services (which will surpass iPhone in profit and revenues sooner than later) and Hardware, including Macs, iPads and wearables. Fun fact: even with numbers that were a little soft, iPhone 16 is the best-selling smartphone in the world, while Pro Max, Pro and Plus occupy 3 more spots in the top ten rankings in that order. So you might ask yourself how a phone that is supposedly "an embarrassment" compared to competitors becomes the best-selling smartphone on the planet, especially at a relatively high price point. 

Did I mention that this past holiday quarter was yet another all-time record?  Kind of a yawn, for Apple, I know, because it keeps setting new records like this, but: this only happens because buyers are voting with their wallets to choose Apple products. Here in the technosphere echo chamber, it's the constant sound of doom and complaints about the glacial pace of Apple evolving its products. But the real world of mass market buyers keeps disagreeing. 

Apple does face the problem of being more cumbersome battleship than nimble destroyer--that is the inevitable challenge all companies face when they grow to the enormous size of Apple. Even more difficult: Wall Street continues to price Apple stock like a growth company, so even as it keeps breaking records for revenue and profit, the challenge of continuing to grow those huge numbers just gets exponentially harder... but Apple keeps doing it thus far. Tech message boards have been predicting doom just around the corner for Apple for as long as the company has been in business. It has weirdly become the always-present background noise to Apple's continued success. Just how much more successful does Apple have to be before the doom-saying gets a rest?

I think you’re confusing how Apple is doing vs how Apple stock is doing. Yes, the stock has continued to perform admirably, benefitting from the heavy inflows to the S&P 500 and being viewed as a less volatile safe haven in tech. But revenues have stalled out and plateaued since 2022. 

Its current share price is in fact being buoyed by a p/e of nearly 40! Though off its peak, that’s still historically high for Apple and too rich for a mature company with stalled revenue growth. And I say this as a shareholder. The stock will get hammered when the market corrects and their p/e descends to the low 20s or even high teens where it belongs. Nothing will likely change regarding how they’re conducting business but the company will be worth far less due to this aberration of a multiple coming back down to earth. 

If the underlying company was doing great you’d see more signs of overall revenue growth. One segment (services) growing to try and make up for another, much more profitable segment (iPhones) shrinking is not a good long-term recipe for success.  

Margins for services are about double the margins on iPhone. Services is the more profitable business, 

daalseth

This is the listing on the AppleInsider web page for this article. They changed the title, which is cool.
But I think it needs to be said that this IS the way Siri is supposed to work. With all its quirks and weaknesses, this is the Siri that was designed and built a decade or so ago and it is working as it was intended.

If Apple wants a fancy, super smart, integrated, AI assistant they are not going to get it by scabbing AI onto Siri. That would be like trying to construct a six story building on the foundation of a rambler. They need to start fresh, start over, give it a different name, and roll it out as a new AI Assistant separate from Siri. 

edited March 3

applepoor

Might be the grounds for a class action as Apple claimed the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max would run AI and it would ready in iOS 18.

saarek

When it comes to Siri Apple always seems to over promise and under deliver.

Just today I had an example how of useless Siri is. I asked the question “when will sunset occur on the 25th of April?”. Siri told me that it was sorry, but it could not give me weather information that far in advance. 

My daughters Echo Dot, via Alexa, easily answered the question. Bear in mind that the second generation echo dot, which is what my daughter has, came out in 2016 and cost me £29. The fact that my wife’s iPhone 16 cannot answer this simple question is just absurd at this point.

How senior leadership members at Apple have not lost their jobs over this just blows my mind.

applezulu

Honestly, it’s remarkable how long Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field remains in effect after his own death. 

The perception that he introduced new, fully-formed, instantly successful category killer products on an annual basis continues unabated. This is, of course, the driving force behind the perpetual lamentations about incrementalism at Apple. 

Turn off the RDF, and you’d realize everything at Apple has started at a slow burn and moved along at an incremental pace thereafter. Even the iPhone took years to become an instant success. 

The gloomy predictions in this article seem largely based on some features not showing up yet in the current iOS beta. I personally wouldn’t recommend selling your stock based on that. Either way, this stuff takes time to get right, and then when it does, everyone forgets about the half-baked competition that was supposed to be ahead of the curve. 

Siri is currently better than the peanut gallery claims, and in my experience, the occasional regressions where Siri stumbles on something that used to work usually turn out to be the result of back-end updates that come before a boost in Siri power or features. 

Lost in the grousing about iPhone 16e and MagSafe is the fact that the included hardware didn’t skimp on its ability to handle ‘Apple Intelligence.’ That’s because that’s what’s coming in the immediate pipeline, and they’re not going to sell a new iPhone that can’t handle it. Apple’s decisions about the 16e likely would’ve been different if the delays predicted in this article are accurate. 

bushman4

Seems as though Apple has diversified into many new categories.  Which is good however letting its most profitable category the iPhone stagnant as far as hardware improvements and bringing Siri up to a useful  AI status isn’t innovative or satisfying customer needs
bottom Line: Apple has fallen behind and should make the iPhone its top product. Enough said

saarek

AppleZulu said:

Honestly, it’s remarkable how long Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field remains in effect after his own death. 

The perception that he introduced new, fully-formed, instantly successful category killer products on an annual basis continues unabated. This is, of course, the driving force behind the perpetual lamentations about incrementalism at Apple. 

Turn off the RDF, and you’d realize everything at Apple has started at a slow burn and moved along at an incremental pace thereafter. Even the iPhone took years to become an instant success. 

The gloomy predictions in this article seem largely based on some features not showing up yet in the current iOS beta. I personally wouldn’t recommend selling your stock based on that. Either way, this stuff takes time to get right, and then when it does, everyone forgets about the half-baked competition that was supposed to be ahead of the curve. 

Siri is currently better than the peanut gallery claims, and in my experience, the occasional regressions where Siri stumbles on something that used to work usually turn out to be the result of back-end updates that come before a boost in Siri power or features. 

Lost in the grousing about iPhone 16e and MagSafe is the fact that the included hardware didn’t skimp on its ability to handle ‘Apple Intelligence.’ That’s because that’s what’s coming in the immediate pipeline, and they’re not going to sell a new iPhone that can’t handle it. Apple’s decisions about the 16e likely would’ve been different if the delays predicted in this article are accurate. 

I think that it's fair to say that people have a right to be frustrated here. You've got to remember that Siri first shipped in 2011, Apple had first mover advantage and it failed to deliver on the original promisses. In 2014 it was eclipsed on day one by Amazon's Alexa and was further pushed into also-ran status when Google Assistant launched in 2016. 

Yes, for super basic queries, Siri does just fine. But, after nearly 14 years of being on the market, you'd think that they'd have caught up by now. 

Think of Apple Maps. When it launched, it was rightly called out for being a mess and for being an inferior replacement for Google Maps. It took a few generations, but I've not heard the average person bitch about Apple Maps for years now.

Consider where iOS is today and what it can do now against iOS version 5. Yes, Siri has moved on a bit from iOS 5 too, of course it has. But it's still absurdly basic and poorly received by the masses in comparison to the competition.