tell that to people who bought iPhone 16 just because of THIS, and they won't get anything until iPhone 17 will already be out
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Likely Targeting iOS 19 for Delayed Siri Features
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think Apple is in more dangerous waters than people realize. 75% of their 3.6T market cap is dependent on iPhone sales and subscriptions revenue - AirPods and watches are a good chunk of the rest and tied to the iPhone. AI utilization is growing exponentially (I use it more and more every day for all manner of things) and the next year will bring at least one ‘killer app’ outside the Apple ecosystem. Look at what Google has done with Gemini or what Amazon might do with Alexa+ on mobile. What happens if iPhone 17/18 sales take a near 30% hit over the next 2 years or their margin has to drop to 5-8% to stay competitive with an increasingly inferior product? They got chips, I give them that. But, they will not support the 146% debt to equity that Apple currently carries. This is an admittedly contrarian view, but Apple is starting to remind me of old Big Blue in a few ways.
If apple didn't have ai to market iPhone 16 they'll be left with an hour to talk about a button.
Tim Cook is 5 years beyond the point he should have stepped down and let someone with vision run the place.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see class action suit surface in the coming months.
Apple sold iPhone 16, a technically rebranded iPhone 15, with the Apple Intelligence dream. And now it’s barely fulfilling it. I’m still glad I stuck with the iPhone 14 Pro.
So basically with all the marketing fluff and making a big thing out of AI just to get get delay to next year ? Then whats the point of advertising iphone 16 series with AI ? What a joke lol
I like the idea of scrapping Siri altogether and creating a brand new intelligent assistant with a new name (Apple Assistant, for example). Because really, Siri has become such a meme among many people; it will always be associated with something stupid and useless. I don’t know how Apple managed to lost this AI game given that Siri was literally the first personal assistant on the market at the time.
I’d tell them you never buy a product for features that are coming later. You buy it for what it can do out of the box and if it fits your needs.
I’d argue that at the moment it is hype, and unless significant breakthroughs are made to turn AGI from hypothetical to reality, it will remain hype. They (OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.) have not found the use case that is actually going to make them money. Yes, they have billions of dollars and are growing, but my understanding is that growth is mostly due due to investors just pumping more money into it. Eventually they need a product that generates good revenue, and none of them have one yet. The story is a little different when talking about chip manufacturers, but at the end of the day they are selling chips that are being marketed for AI development. If AI development stalls, then the need for the hardware does too. And that development is starting to stall pretty hard. AI is a point where new models are costing significantly more money to develop while yielding smaller returns. This isn’t surprising because the existing models have been trained on literally almost all of the information available.
Even the iPhone 17 won’t deliver. It’s the software that’s got into a total mess:
Bloomberg: Apple could have to scrap new Siri AI features and start over - 9to5Mac
Earlier today, Apple announced that it is delaying the launch of the “more personalized” version of Siri, which was first...
9to5mac.com
I feel like the outrage over this is a bit hyperbolic, and the repeated comparisons to LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini loses site that Apple is trying to do as much as possible on device and protect users privacy and data. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they are coming to the conclusion the AI as it is now from the likes of OpenAI and other LLMs is at odds with some of their environmental goals. The server farms powering a lot of these popular LLMs are both power hungry and extremely “thirsty”. I too was looking forward to a better Siri, and while disappointed I have to wait a bit longer, Siri really isn’t that integral to my day to day use.
Last edited:
I’d be happy to. I tell everyone they shouldn’t buy any product based on what a company claims may come to the product in a future update.Even the iPhone 17 won’t deliver. It’s the software that’s got into a total mess:
Bloomberg: Apple could have to scrap new Siri AI features and start over - 9to5Mac
Earlier today, Apple announced that it is delaying the launch of the “more personalized” version of Siri, which was first...
Happy is the wrong word, but I do try to advise that people don’t do this as it is ALWAYS a mistake. I am happy to try and steer people to get the product they need based on what it can do at the time they may purchase it.
How do you know, have you asked them? Most people buy apple at the automatic pilot. Are they happy with Siri?
More and more people starting to realize that the same ecosystem Apple is an open free world on Android and that Android is years ahead compared to what Apple has to show.
You’re telling me all the people on Mac centric forums are wrong? The message to Apple is out in the open and Apple should be ashamed when another comparison is shown.
Even apples own employees are getting dissatisfied of what’s going on:
Bloomberg: Apple could have to scrap new Siri AI features and start over - 9to5Mac
Earlier today, Apple announced that it is delaying the launch of the “more personalized” version of Siri, which was first...
9to5mac.com
Siri is not that integral for your daily use because it’s completely useless in that regard. And when you only use Apple related things, you don’t know what you’re really missing.
I live in an Apple and PC world. I build my own computers, PC for work, and have used Android phones for work. House has Siri and Alexa devices. No voice assistant is integral to my tech life. Again, I would love for Siri to be better and it is long overdue, but when it doesn’t work, it’s just a small annoyance. As for better AI Siri, or AI anything, at the end of the day, the average consumer probably really doesn’t care. It’s the tech nerds, which I assume many of us on this forum are, who get upset because we love to see these kinds of things progress. Every time Apple makes a misstep, people come out, even on an Apple oriented forum, and prognosticate doom and gloom for the company. Honestly, this ain’t gonna be that.
I understand what you’re saying but I don’t think that holds up. AI can be very helpful when it’s made right. Have a look at this and you know what I’m talking about:
Helpful, yes. Integral or essential though, no. And I still believe most people just don’t really care about any of the AI stuff.
And yeah, apples AI is not good, but it’ll get there. The studies they have released have been pretty great, they just need to get it together on the software implementation. And with the wall many LLMs are running into, I think they have time to catch up.
You’re right. Many people forget the news from several years back that Siri is basically a patchwork of code, was developed all wrong, and to start from scratch would take a lot of time. I’m honestly hoping that Apple has indeed started to rebuild Siri from the ground up. No way the Current Siri code can handle what Apple wants it to do.
Apples stinginess with hardware, especially RAM and SSDs are going to bite them in the ass finally! Even 8GB of RAM in iPhones/iPads are not enoough for the next gen Siri (or whatever they call it). That means, even the upcoming iPhone 17 (which I assume will ship with the meager 8GB of RAM) wont be able to use that feature in a smooth and satisfactory way. They really need a redemption arc in AI...its time for the current leadership to admit failure and step down. Look at ManusAI, or how other companies are ccelerating in AI development, and Apple cannot ship _AI products in a meaningful way.
That’s the main point. Overpromising. That’s what I don’t like about the issue. Not the delay itself.
Which make absolutely sense. Well known haters are storming the thread, but what is really different is the approach Apple has with AI, totally different from Gemini or Copilot. They probably underestimated the difficulty for such an approach, which is their fault. But I like the way they choose.Another take.
Notes on the Apple Intelligence Delay - MacStories
Simon Willison, one of the more authoritative independent voices in the LLM space right now, published a good theory on what may have happened with Apple's delay of Apple Intelligence's Siri personalization features: I have a hunch that this delay might relate to security. These new Apple...www.macstories.net
TL; DR - it all comes back to security.
Exactly.
AI is 80% marketing, at this time.
Technically Apple Intelligence WILL run on iPhone 16, in the future.
BTW you are right about the wrong marketing.
I’m looking at what Google is doing with Gemini and I’m VERY HAPPY Apple had chosen another way. Gemini can’t even set an alarm without data connection.
He needs to go, pure and simple. It’s been an absolute **** show. Even iOS 18 is full of bugs. I mean what’s happed to apple? I was very pro apple and they couldn’t do any wrong in my eyes. Now I’m persuadable to another product when the time comes. I just do not trust them anymore. I’ve seen the light. And AI - bin Siri. It’s truly horrific and has gotten worse with each update. I think it’s a bit criminal I’ve bought 4 HomePods and I can’t even use them properly. Siri is completely unusable now. Maybe it’s my Scottish accent but if I put on an American accent it sometimes switches off my lights. Lol.
This also makes me wonder if AI is something Apple is ill-prepared to tackle, given their focus on privacy.
iOS 18 basically shipped with nothing of value, and unless Apple does an about face (unlikely), their AI features looks like something which will continue to monopolise the bulk of their engineering resources for the next 2-3 years at least.
There's also the thorny issue if their intent-based intelligence features requiring a ton of buy-in and support from developers. Goodwill that is certainly not as good as it was a decade ago (nobody is going to want to donate their app's content and functionality and end up being commoditised).
I mean, Apple hardware remains excellent, windows still stinks, I am still not a fan of android (and a lot of AI features we have seen on android phones are also glorified parlour tricks as well), and in this context, I wonder if Apple should have taken the "flash" route by simply stating "I think a lot of the AI features we see in use today are really just a bunch of gimmicks, and we are not going down that route." Instead focus their engineering resources on improving existing features on iOS and fixing bugs. Sit out the AI race and bet on the entire scene being one giant bubble waiting to burst the moment venture capital dries up.