News WWDC 2025: Did Apple Just Hit Snooze?

[animishticomb]

Hey everyone,
So, WWDC 2025 just happened and… did Apple forget to bring anything new? Seriously, this felt like the ultimate gap year. No hardware, no big leaps—just a lot of talk and a shiny new “Liquid Glass” look that honestly screams Windows Vista vibes (and maybe even those old Android skins we all love to hate ).

Apple Intelligence = Still MIA
Remember last year’s hype about Apple Intelligence? Fast-forward and we’re still waiting. The big AI features are delayed (again) to 2026, so if you’re buying a new iPhone or Mac now, you’re basically getting 2-year-old tech. Meanwhile, Google and others are zooming ahead.

Weaponized Research?
Also, is it just me or is Apple now dropping “research” papers left and right to make it look like AI is useless? Feels more like a PR move to distract from the lack of actual features. Kinda sketchy.

Liquid Glass: Déjà Vu?
That new UI? Looks like a remix of Windows Vista’s Aero Glass and some old Android skins. Not sure if it’s fresh or just recycled but it does look horrible. They organized a whole WWDC to showcase an icon pack?

What do you all think?

• Annoyed that Apple’s AI is still vaporware?
• Is this the most boring WWDC ever?
• Anyone else rolling their eyes at “Liquid Glass”?
• Do you trust Apple’s research push, or is it just smoke and mirrors?

 

[nitin_g3]

The unification of the OSs across all apple devices may look like nothing much, but could proove to be a big leap. Usually software related innovation doesn't carry as much weightage as hardware.

 

[DigitalDude]

They are just one innovation (by someone else) away from going the way of the IBM - not as bad but something similar.

They are struggling with AI because they painted themselves into a corner with the privacy branding. You can't succeed in AI without high quality data which doesn't come by without breaking some eggs.

Meta could ramp up so fast to be even compared with OpenAI level models is because they have absolutely no qualms about the data aspect.

Only time will tell if they compromise with their privacy branding or find a way to get the high quality data and compute by just throwing a lot of money at it. This is probably also what spooks the investors who bet on Apple to be a big cash cow for a long time without doing much.

And the AI talent is so scarce and already found their homes so being late didn't help here either. Again have to throw some cash here.

But unfortunately there is no charismatic dictator incharge at the top anymore to get his way with the board, investors and employees to use a lot of cash and drastically change a few things and teams. or maybe that is what they are doing! again, only time will tell.

 

[mohamed777]

Apple is trying it's hardest to disprove that reasoning models work, just because they can't make a competent one is just hilarious.

 

[animishticomb]

Apple is trying it's hardest to disprove that reasoning models work, just because they can't make a competent one is just hilarious.

You're bang on. Here is the full coverage and details from a reputed ai expert in his podcast

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

 

[alekhkhanna]

Joanna Stern ripped them a new one. Absolutely love her candor:

 

[t3chg33k]

They are just one innovation (by someone else) away from going the way of the IBM - not as bad but something similar.

They are struggling with AI because they painted themselves into a corner with the privacy branding. You can't succeed in AI without high quality data which doesn't come by without breaking some eggs.

Meta could ramp up so fast to be even compared with OpenAI level models is because they have absolutely no qualms about the data aspect.

Only time will tell if they compromise with their privacy branding or find a way to get the high quality data and compute by just throwing a lot of money at it. This is probably also what spooks the investors who bet on Apple to be a big cash cow for a long time without doing much.

And the AI talent is so scarce and already found their homes so being late didn't help here either. Again have to throw some cash here.

But unfortunately there is no charismatic dictator incharge at the top anymore to get his way with the board, investors and employees to use a lot of cash and drastically change a few things and teams. or maybe that is what they are doing! again, only time will tell.

To be fair, the AI integration in any device hasn't been revolutionary which gives Apple a lot of time to figure something better in terms of integration, since usually that is what they focus on, compared to someone like Samsung that will put multiple competing assistants on the device to be the first.

Microsoft gets a lot of flak for Copilot integration, so user expectations on AI seem to vary wildly.

They really can't skip the training part, so I doubt they wouldn't be breaking copyrights like Google, Meta and Open AI have done to have a decent model in place. The part they will market is the offline, on-device AI for which they need the small models to be good enough.

The biggest failure has been oddly marketing where they prematurely focused on an AI Siri. The market itself has become extremely boring, be it Google or Apple, so customer expectations are no longer that high and people are happy enough to hold on to their devices for longer.

 

[mohamed777]

To be fair, the AI integration in any device hasn't been revolutionary which gives Apple a lot of time to figure something better in terms of integration, since usually that is what they focus on, compared to someone like Samsung that will put multiple competing assistants on the device to be the first.

Microsoft gets a lot of flak for Copilot integration, so user expectations on AI seem to vary wildly.

They really can't skip the training part, so I doubt they wouldn't be breaking copyrights like Google, Meta and Open AI have done to have a decent model in place. The part they will market is the offline, on-device AI for which they need the small models to be good enough.

The biggest failure has been oddly marketing where they prematurely focused on an AI Siri. The market itself has become extremely boring, be it Google or Apple, so customer expectations are no longer that high and people are happy enough to hold on to their devices for longer.

I completely disagree on the revolutionary part, gemini intergration within android and Samsung has been nothing short of amazing. Share my screen and live screen sharing features in Gemini just work, unlike apple's hallucinating mess.

 

[mohamed777]

You're bang on. Here is the full coverage and details from a reputed ai expert in his podcast

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

Thanks, will have a look to get more detailed insights!

 

[animishticomb]

To be fair, the AI integration in any device hasn't been revolutionary which gives Apple a lot of time to figure something better in terms of integration, since usually that is what they focus on, compared to someone like Samsung that will put multiple competing assistants on the device to be the first.

Microsoft gets a lot of flak for Copilot integration, so user expectations on AI seem to vary wildly.

They really can't skip the training part, so I doubt they wouldn't be breaking copyrights like Google, Meta and Open AI have done to have a decent model in place. The part they will market is the offline, on-device AI for which they need the small models to be good enough.

The biggest failure has been oddly marketing where they prematurely focused on an AI Siri. The market itself has become extremely boring, be it Google or Apple, so customer expectations are no longer that high and people are happy enough to hold on to their devices for longer.

Completely disagree. I've been using ai daily on my samsung and copilot at work daily for a year now. Gemini Live and many other competitors are revolutionary. Of course you can live in ignorance like any other thing in life by repeating whatever you want to believe but that doesn't change the world. While you're ignorant just hope that your ignorance doesn't leave you behind in real life outside of your blind apple faith.

Apple users want to believe that ai is useless, they're just ignorant if they believe that.

 

[t3chg33k]

Completely disagree. I've been using ai daily on my samsung and copilot at work daily for a year now. Gemini Live and many other competitors are revolutionary. Of course you can live in ignorance like any other thing in life by repeating whatever you want to believe but that doesn't change the world. While you're ignorant just hope that your ignorance doesn't leave you behind in real life outside of your blind apple faith.

Apple users want to believe that ai is useless, they're just ignorant if they believe that.

If you are changing the world with AI on your Samsung or Windows device, then power to you. Not sure why you have to launch personal attacks each time, when I made it clear in the past that the iPhone is the only Apple device I own among a dozen, and I completely disagree with Apple's wall garden and premium margins.

AI is not really a factor in selling of phones or laptops. Most of the so-called AI features existed before AI became a buzzword. If you want to avoid accepting reality, then it is up to you.

iPhone 16 Leads Global Smartphone Sales in Q1 2025

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www.counterpointresearch.com

AI smartphone and laptop sales are said to be slowly dying – but is anyone surprised?

This isn't just a flash in the pan, but we need to get a few things straight about AI here

www.techradar.com

 

[animishticomb]

Most of the so-called AI features existed before AI became a buzzword.

They did not exist earlier. AI is not a static thing where if AI existed 5 years ago and AI exists now means AI was there and still is, so nothing has changed. AI capabilities evolve every day and there is no room for someone who wants to use or create "only the polished product".

I think you just want to justify your confirmation bias of thinking apple is best and anything they dont do is not required by the world. You can choose and continue to believe it and ignore the reality. That doesn't change the fact that with AI apple has made the biggest business blunder ever and lost trillions in potential market cap already due to AI. In 2022, before AI became mainstream, apple market cap was 1.6 trillion and microsoft was 1 trillion. Today Microsoft market cap is >3.5 trillion and apple is <3 trillion. I am sure you can use your old non ai powered calculator to calculate the cagr difference and who has won the stockholder money, who btw do not ignore reality as they want to win an internet argument or continue to believe in their confirmation bias.

I leverage AI for several things both professionally and personally : Coding, Analytics, Data Science, Equity Research, Day to day research, Comparative studies. Everyday there are new developments happening and being leveraged. Just today for example I am going to attend a webinar/class on AI in investing by SOIC. I am into Banking Analytics for 20 years now and the things I am able to do in minutes used to take a team of 2 for the full day+ Many things which were not even possible as it was too much 'brute dirty data entry work' gets done in an automated manner. I use tools like Microsoft Copilot, Github Copilot, Google Gemini pro, perplexity pro, Microstrategy/Strategy AI, Tableau Pulse, Dataiku AI. And I am not even the most technical user as I don't get the bandwidth or time nowadays to play with these things hands on. My teams would be using and knowing 5X more already as they work on it day to day.

I am not into image or video generation, where some truly remarkable things have happened recently. You can watch the Google IO this year and how people have already started leveraging it, even MKBHD, TWIT and many other podcasters covered use cases just a month after the launch.

 

[t3chg33k]

They did not exist earlier. AI is not a static thing where if AI existed 5 years ago and AI exists now means AI was there and still is, so nothing has changed. AI capabilities evolve every day and there is no room for someone who wants to use or create "only the polished product".

I think you just want to justify your confirmation bias of thinking apple is best and anything they dont do is not required by the world. You can choose and continue to believe it and ignore the reality. That doesn't change the fact that AI has fumbled the ball big time and lost trillions in market cap already due to AI. In 2022, before AI apple market cap was 1.6 trillion and microsoft was 1 trillion. Today Microsoft market cap is >3.5 trillion and apple is <3 trillion. I am sure you can use your old non ai powered calculator to calculate the cagr difference and who has won the stockholder money, who btw do not ignore reality as they want to win an internet argument or continue to believe in their confirmation bias.

I leverage AI for several things both professionally and personally : Coding, Analytics, Data Science, Equity Research, Day to day research, Comparative studies. Everyday there are new developments happening and being leveraged. Just today for example I am going to attend a webinar/class on AI in investing by SOIC. I am into Banking Analytics for 20 years now and the things I am able to do in minutes used to take a team of 2 for the full day+ Many things which were not even possible as it was too much 'brute dirty data entry work' gets done in an automated manner. I use tools like Microsoft Copilot, Github Copilot, Google Gemini pro, perplexity pro, Microstrategy/Strategy AI, Tableau Pulse, Dataiku AI. And I am not even the most technical user as I don't get the bandwidth or time nowadays to play with these things hands on. My teams would be using and knowing 5X more already as they work on it day to day.

I am not into image or video generation, where some truly remarkable things have happened recently. You can watch the Google IO this year and how people have already started leveraging it, even MKBHD, TWIT and many other podcasters covered use cases just a month after the launch.

I have not at any point stated Apple is the best, so again not sure where you are getting that from. Apple is undoubtedly far behind in the AI race. It is good that you can leverage AI for your use cases, but consumers have not warmed up to it yet and hence it doesn't reflect in actual sales.

Stock prices and market cap are not driven by any inherent value. We had the same scenario during the dot come burst, where stock valuation meant nothing. You have to excuse me if I can't extend your personal gains to the whole industry.

AI is not increasing productivity or leading to job losses, finds a study

A recent study indicates that AI's impact on employee pay and hours has been minimal, despite its rapid adoption. While some companies like CrowdStrike and Duolingo are cutting staff in favor of AI, others, such as Klarna, are bringing back human workers after AI failed to meet expectations in...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-ceo-admits-ai-generating-123059075.html

 

[animishticomb]

I have not at any point stated Apple is the best, so again not sure where you are getting that from. Apple is undoubtedly far behind in the AI race. It is good that you can leverage AI for your use cases, but consumers have not warmed up to it yet and hence it doesn't reflect in actual sales.

Stock prices and market cap are not driven by any inherent value. We had the same scenario during the dot come burst, where stock valuation meant nothing. You have to excuse me if I can't extend your personal gains to the whole industry.

AI is not increasing productivity or leading to job losses, finds a study

A recent study indicates that AI's impact on employee pay and hours has been minimal, despite its rapid adoption. While some companies like CrowdStrike and Duolingo are cutting staff in favor of AI, others, such as Klarna, are bringing back human workers after AI failed to meet expectations in...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-ceo-admits-ai-generating-123059075.html

Great just acting like you are open to other ideas or point of views doesn't mean you are. You clearly are unwilling to accept any new ideas or reality. On one hand you say stock price is meaningless and on another hand you keep quoting market sales as the undeniable truth.

So power to you, you are 100% right.

Ai is useless. apple saved their customers from using ai by deliberately lagging behind in it. It seems customers like you have even justified that as the best thing, so clearly apple is right

 

[mayank4823]

Completely disagree. I've been using ai daily on my samsung and copilot at work daily for a year now. Gemini Live and many other competitors are revolutionary. Of course you can live in ignorance like any other thing in life by repeating whatever you want to believe but that doesn't change the world. While you're ignorant just hope that your ignorance doesn't leave you behind in real life outside of your blind apple faith.

Apple users want to believe that ai is useless, they're just ignorant if they believe that.

I am on Pixel 9 and have Gemini disabled. I absolutely don't care about any AI stuff. Can you tell me some daily tasks where it can actually be useful ?

 

[Heisen]

If a company like Apple wanted to develop its own AI model, it would have done so already. They are either intentionally avoiding it or resisting the push, hence the research papers. I can understand why. These AI models can lead to significant issues, as we have limited control over how they function. We can only tweak them or apply filters.

Remember, Apple is always late to the party. They simply won't act until they believe the timing is right or they have found a way to do it properly.

They must be under immense pressure, though, because the industry is rapidly adopting AI.

It's similar to the move Toyota made, while the rest of the world was shifting toward electric vehicles, Toyota said "No" and stuck with gasoline engines and hybrids. And now, because of that single decision, many other companies are re-evaluating their own commitment to going fully electric.

It’s the shifting trends in the industry and the unique advantages and privileges that Apple holds, which allow them to move at their own pace. A company that isn’t performing well, on the other hand, will be forced to do everything it can just to stay relevant.

 

[animishticomb]

If a company like Apple wanted to develop its own AI model, it would have done so already. They are either intentionally avoiding it or resisting the push, hence the research papers.

Wow so your starting assumption is always right and then you are justifying this assumption by rejecting everything else in the world

Many people even today believe that a spartphone is not useful or necessary, a dumb phone is the best. Similarly some people today and in the future will believe that AI is not necessary.

And apple is not doing well, it is by far the worst stock performer out of the fab 7 over the last year or two.

 

[mohamed777]

I am on Pixel 9 and have Gemini disabled. I absolutely don't care about any AI stuff. Can you tell me some daily tasks where it can actually be useful ?

It is really useful when you have something on your screen and want to know about it, you can launch gemini and click the button ask about screen and get help with that.

There's another option called live screen share where you can share your screen with gemini and ask questions through voice and get answers directly.