Apple’s credibility is on the line with this fall’s Siri revamp

It’s no secret to anyone that Apple’s had a tough time delivering on Apple Intelligence features. The iPhone 16 launched without them, despite supposedly being “built” for the tech. Since then, we’ve seen a handful of tools reach the public, the best ones being ChatGPT integration and Visual Intelligence. But the most important upgrades — contextual awareness and app command hooks for Siri — have remained missing in action, and in March were officially delayed into sometime “in the coming year.”

The latest rumor, by way of the New York Times, is that “the coming year” really means fall 2025, presumably alongside iOS 19. It’s such a long delay that Apple’s now put itself in a precarious position. It absolutely has to deliver, or face some long-term consequences.

What does Apple’s word mean?

It’s not just about iPhone buyers

Apple

It’s not like Apple products haven’t been delayed before. The original HomePod, for instance, missed its December 2017 target, and the AirPower charging mat was silently canceled. We’ve also yet to see Apple’s next-generation CarPlay in a real-world vehicle, despite it having been previewed in 2022 with a 2024 rollout target. That last one is pretty egregious, now that I’m thinking about it again. Investors would be rightfully irritated if Apple were a startup with CarPlay as its only product.

The difference with Apple Intelligence is that the company has anchored all three of its biggest products to it, namely the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Their fates are inextricably tied — on top of a massive marketing campaign, AI is the only real upgrade incentive for the latest hardware. Yes, my iPhone 16 Pro also has a Camera Control button and a faster processor, among some other tweaks, but that’s like selling a car based solely on a higher top speed and a better infotainment display — you’re probably not going to trade in a car you bought two or three years ago.

If Apple can’t deliver on something so hyped and so critical to its prospects, it’s going to be very difficult for shoppers to trust the company with any promises going forward. It could be at risk of being branded as a vaporware company. Even prior to Apple Intelligence, it had fallen into the habit of regularly delaying software features — my Apple Watch Ultra 2 didn’t get something as basic as Double Tap gestures until a month after the wearable was released.

Speaking of investors, they could be somewhat more forgiving, given how rich some of them have become. However, if features expected with iOS 18 are still missing when iOS 19 arrives, I could see some of them losing faith in Apple, particularly with a White House administration fantasizing about its tariffs leading to a US-made iPhone. Its financial prospects are dicey enough without worrying about whether Apple Intelligence was always just a phantom.

Related

5 reasons I bought the Apple Watch Ultra 2 instead of the Series 10

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 may not be the latest and greatest, but it still beats the Series 10 in key areas.

Trailing behind in the AI race

The last chance to stay relevant

Indeed, Apple has already taken a lot of flak for lagging behind in AI. Siri was the first major voice assistant on a smartphone, yet the company let the product stagnate for years, to the point that how bad it is became a common joke. It took 2024’s ChatGPT integration — on some devices only — for Siri to answer many knowledge questions that Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have been handling since the 2010s.

Apple Intelligence is just a pale shadow of newer AI platforms like Google Gemini, not to mention ChatGPT itself. If Apple can’t catch up by the end of 2025, it could find itself in a permanent lag, given that its competitors are hardly about to stop making improvements. That would be a remarkable situation for a company that’s best known as an innovator — some of its devices have revolutionized whole product categories.

There’s always a chance Apple could pull a surprise leap forward, to be fair. Apple is rumored to be working on a large language model of its own, one that could fundamentally fix Siri and end the jokes once and for all. That isn’t expected to launch until 2027, however, by which point the AI industry could be unrecognizable from what it is today. Even the brand new Alexa+ will have had time to evolve, further intensifying competition.

Related

Here’s how I built a Matter smart home

Matter can make your smart home seamless — these are the things you need to get started.

The stage is set

Waiting for Apple’s spin

Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote, scheduled for June 9, could be a pivotal event. The company always uses WWDC to preview the next major releases of iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. If there’s any hope of contextual awareness and app intents being ready for the fall, Apple will have to say so at WWDC, for the simple reason that app developers need time to add support. Apple, in turn, needs as many enhanced apps ready as possible not just for the iOS 19 launch, but for the iPhone 17 — expect buyers to be upset if the new Siri commands won’t work with their favorite apps.

In fact, I’m calling it now — Apple is going to spend a significant amount of the WWDC keynote hyping and demonstrating its delayed features. If it doesn’t, that’ll be a harbinger of bad news. Apple might still have those things ready for iOS 19, conceivably, but in a basic form, and/or only in some point release like iOS 19.1. It was supposed to have the tech ready earlier this year, after all. Returning to vague promises would suggest that Apple was forced to scrap its work at some point and start over.

I hope that Apple is able to preserve its credibility by smashing iOS 19 out of the park. But that’s riding on what happens between now and September, and that’s a lot of pressure, even for a trillion-dollar corporation. It may be tempted to shuffle Apple Intelligence off just a little bit further, aiming to build enough goodwill to avoid harming sales any more than it already has.

You might also like

Everything you need to know about PEVs, or personal electric vehicles

You can use PEVs to explore, run errands, or speed up your commute.