tl;dr: Apple massively fumbled the rollout of Apple Intelligence, promising groundbreaking AI features last year but delivering almost nothing meaningful. Google, Samsung, and even Amazon have already shipped better AI features while Apple delays indefinitely. Apple’s historically reliable ecosystem advantage is weakening fast, and unless they regain transparency, empower their engineers, and rediscover boldness, users might finally lose patience and jump ship.
The idea
I’ve various forms of this post in the back of my mind (and my Google Docs) for the last 6 months. But, with all of Google’s announcements at Google I/O, I finally have a solid idea of what to write here.
I’m not going to go through the whole Apple Intelligence story in detail, because if you’re reading this chances are you’re already aware. To summarize it, last year Apple demoed their brand new AI features. They were, of course, amazing ideas. Things that seemed so obvious in hindsight but that nobody had thought of. That’s what Apple likes to do. Everyone was excited beyond belief. They promised amazing features that would change the way you use your devices. Yet, here we are, almost a full year later and only the (arguably) most boring features have arrived. The kinds of features that you only activate on accident.
This is Apple’s biggest fumble. Never has Apple done anything like this. This story is full of awful, un-Apple-like things. Hearing this unfold over the past year-ish has made me wonder exactly what went wrong. Has Apple fundamentally changed as a company? What does this mean for the future?
Expectations v. Reality
Back at WWDC 2024, Apple announced “Apple Intelligence” with a significant amount of impressive-sounding features:
Writing Tools - modify text using AI throughout the system
Image Playground - generate images from prompts and pictures of your friends
Genmoji - generate emojis from a prompt
New Siri
Better context understanding - you can ask Siri about something and then ask follow-up questions
Better language understanding - you can stumble over your words in a Siri command and it will still understand you
Personal Context - Siri has knowledge of your entire digital life. An Apple rep demoed this by asking Siri about the flight her mother was going on, and Siri responded by providing details it found from a flight number in their text messages
In-App Actions - Siri can take actions throughout your apps from a single command. Apple showed it opening a search query in the Photos app and editing the photo just by saying “Make this photo pop,” and then asking Siri to add the photo to a note in the Notes app.
On-screen Awareness - Siri can understand the content on your screen and answer questions about it. Apple demoed this showing a text from a friend with a new address, asking Siri: “Add this address to his contact card.”
There were some other, smaller, features, but these were the major ones. It’s clear that the biggest feature Apple was targeting with Apple Intelligence was Siri, which makes sense considering the dismal state Siri was (is) in, even compared to non-generative assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa.
These features sounded amazing. They were what everybody wanted from AI. Nobody wants a chatbot bolted onto the side of the OS. What people really want is an assistant that knows them, and that can make life easier. Apple promised that these features would arrive sometime in early 2025 (rumored to be around April), but April has came and went, and not all of these features have not arrived.
In fact, Apple has chosen to delay all of the big-ticket features like Personal Context, In-App Actions, and On-screen Awareness. So far, the only features that have shipped are the (in my eyes) boring ones. I only ever activate Writing Tools on accident, I use Image Playground maybe once a month to play around, and I have generated maybe two Genmojis in my entire life. Better context & language understanding for Siri are both cool features, but these are features that Google Assistant and Alexa have had since 2020 at least.
The Culture Shift Inside Apple
This entire rollout has been like nothing Apple has ever done before. Apple is rarely this quick to adopt new, unstable tech. Apple virtually never advertises unreleased software features on their devices, especially not premiering entire commercials revolving around Personal Context, a feature that has no known release date or even time range. Anybody who bought an iPhone based on those ads was lied to. It’s not even delayed in the way that may be typical for Apple. It’s nowhere to be seen. The most recent update from Apple was in March where say said they “anticipate rolling [the rest of Apple Intelligence] in the coming year.”
This is, frankly, absurd. Everything about this Apple Intelligence rollout is not something I, or anybody, would expect from Apple. This is something that Google or Samsung might pull. But they didn’t. Google and Samsung both have AI features on the same level as, or exceeding, Apple Intelligence, including the Personal Context features. Google Gemini has on-screen awareness, personal context, and it can (somewhat) take in-app actions.
This is the exact kind of scenario Apple has successfully avoided for decades. They let competitors beta test unstable tech, and then roll out something more polished, smooth, and generally better, based on their mistakes. Apple essentially bets on other companies not being as good as they are, which was a pretty safe bet until this point. Now, Google, Samsung, and others are lapping them. Apple has never had to deal with anything like this before, and now they’re trying to catch up.
Apple’s entire brand hinges on trust. You can generally trust that their software works, and that what they promise is exactly what you’ll get. But with Apple Intelligence, that trust is fundamentally at risk. When these features ship, what happens if they’re nowhere near as good as they demoed on stage at WWDC? Allegedly, that’s the exact reason these features were delayed. Where is the polish? Where is the smoothness?
Google v. Apple
Apple’s cautious approach may have worked well in the past, but right now, it’s crippling them. While Apple hesitates, Google ships. Google Gemini isn’t theoretical - it’s real, live, and getting better at a rapid pace. Google regularly demoes and ships features that Apple can only show off in carefully scripted demos in a pre-recorded environment. Gemini can already understand context, take actions within apps, and can see what’s on your screen. Android users aren’t waiting for the “coming year” for these features, they already have them, and have had them for quite some time.
And it’s not just Google. Samsung has integrated these capabilities into One UI, even bringing them to devices older than those that Apple Intelligence supports. Even Amazon Alexa is suddenly keeping pace, and early reviews of Alexa+ show that it is everything Apple Intelligence was promised to be, just like Google Gemini. The gap between Apple and literally everyone else is widening rapidly, and for the first time in a long time, Apple feels genuinely behind.
Apple’s whole game is being the best. Not the first, but definitely the best. Now, they’re neither. People don’t buy iPhones for the hardware. Pixels and Samsungs have significantly better hardware than an iPhone. People buy iPhones for the ecosystem and experience. Apple Intelligence was supposed to enrich the ecosystem and experience, but instead, it’s exposing Apple’s vulnerability: a company uncomfortably out of its depth, stumbling to catch competitors who used to struggle to even imitate Apple.
The Cost of Apple Losing the Plot
The deeper question now is: does Apple even understand why people bought into their ecosystem to begin with? Apple has long been synonymous with seamless integration, thoughtful software, and effortless simplicity. You bought Apple devices because they really do just work, as cheesy as the tagline is. But if Apple’s core features - the kind of AI assistance people actually want - remain vaporware or arrive half-bakes, what’s left?
Suddenly, Apple’s legendary ecosystem advantage isn’t much of an advantage at all. People won’t stay loyal forever out of inertia alone. If Google, Samsung, and Amazon are delivering the experiences Apple promised but failed to deliver, users will drift away. And once they leave, winning them back is infinitely harder than holding onto them in the first place.
Apple has always counted on brand loyalty, ecosystem lock-in, and familiarity. But those are short-term bets. To win long-term, Apple needs to remind users (and itself) why they were ever great at software in the first place. This starts with a deep realignment of Apple, its core values, and the people in charge.
The next steps
If Apple wants to salvage this situation, they’ve got to get back to their fundamentals. First: transparency. They need to stop with this vague corporate-speak about these features coming “in the next year.” Own the delays, communicate potential timelines, and set realistic expectations.
Second: Apple needs to stop letting the marketing team steer the ship. The product team, engineers, and designers (the ones actually building the tech) need to lead again. There were rumors that the Siri news at WWDC were all news to the Siri team, that this was the first time the engineers were hearing of these new features. This cannot be allowed to happen, and is very likely the fundamental cause behind this disastrous rollout.
Finally: Apple needs to find its confidence again, not cautious hesitation masquerading as “perfectionism,” but real ambition. Apple at its best innovates boldly. Right now, Apple feels afraid, and afraid isn’t innovative. If Apple Intelligence ever hopes to catch up (let alone lead the market), Apple needs to trust itself again, and give users a reason to trust them, too.
Final notes
Apple Intelligence has become a case study in how even the best companies can stumble hard. It isn’t just about delayed or half-baked features, it’s about Apple risking the trust and reputation they spent decades building.
Maybe Apple will pull it together, ship everything they promised, and restore our trust. Or maybe they’ll double down on cautious mediocrity, becoming yet another tech giant chasing trends instead of setting them.
Personally, I hope Apple proves me wrong. I want Apple Intelligence to be genuinely great, not just good enough. Because when Apple gets things right, the entire industry gets better. But right now? Apple feels lost, afraid, and behind. As an iPhone user, I’m getting major FOMO from the Android users getting to experience the future, while we’re just being told “soon™”
Figure it out, Apple.