Apple Reassures Siri Team Members Feeling Disappointed and Embarrassed by Apple Intelligence Delay

[mk313]

Not wishing for the days of Steve, don't think Tim should be fired, etc, but it is interesting to compare the responses of Steve to the mobile me issue with the Apple leadership to this one. IIRC, Steve told the mobile me team they should be ashamed of how their actions tarnished the Apple brand.

Not saying that browbeating your employees creates a fantastic work environment, but the different responses are pretty interesting.

 

[GMShadow]

Siri is basically always successful for me in setting timers (maybe a couple times a year it misunderstands the asked for time), even when asking it from clear across my kitchen.

I don't have issues with timers, weather, humidity checks, etc. All work just fine on my HomePod.

It was on CNBC Squawk Box this morning with 2 full segments and open discussion from all three hosts (all iPhone Apple supporters) about trying android in the near future.

TV anal-ysts have about the same level of intelligence as a badly behaved parrot. Taking them seriously is at your own peril.

 

[Expos of 1969]

We have other commitments across Apple to other projects," Walker said, citing new software and hardware initiatives. "We want to keep our commitments to those, and we understand those are now potentially more timeline-urgent than the features that have been deferred." He said decisions on timing will be made on a "case-by-case basis" as work progresses on products planned for next year.
/////////////////////////////////////////

So, new software and hardware initiatives are more urgent than the features that have been deferred, the ones which were used to market iPhone 16....

Ok, more Tim Cook ethics and to hell with the customers as long as the shareholders love me. Quit now Tim.

 

[therunningman]

Thanked them for their good work? Hahaha That right there shows how utterly in denial these people are. He should be fired right away, Giannandrea obviously can’t do his job properly.

I'm also curious if the workforce might have something to do with it. It seems that he was worried about their feelings more than their actual work. Awhile back, reports were that it was like pulling teeth to get people to actually come back to work after COVID, with most preferring to work from home. I'm wondering how truly motivated the teams are? It doesn't sound like there are any consequences for poor performance. But who knows?

 

[brofkand]

The way Apple squandered their lead in hardware and software this decade will be studied in the years to come, much like the apple of the late 80s and early 90s

 

[Fluffyk]

I’ll never forget that Tim fired the brilliant Forstall for much less just because he demanded excellence and hard work. Tim is a weak leader and this soft approach is what’s killing the company. Major change is needed at Apple. It’s not like there’s another Steve Jobs to stear the ship to the right direction.

 

[9081094]

Apple knows that Siri has been behind for many years. It's built on 2 generations old methods. If you read the AI papers that Apple is publishing, you'd better understand their approach. Their research is leading edge.
Rather than releasing another "me too" LLM tool, where they would be behind the others, they are working on a whole new compute paradigm. Highly risky but if it works, will redefine personal computing.
Take a look at their new APIs. VisionOS and Spatial functions are designed to build a 3D model of your favourite locations, Home, work, cottage, car etc. This is the setting that will generate location context for your meta data. Have you seen spatial images on Vision Pro? - stunning. Lidar is included in all of their high end devices for a reason.
Apple is pushing the boundaries for edge computing models that will run on local devices - specifically phones. Combined with meta data (private) derived from every interaction within your domain, Apple has the potential to deliver magic.
When the edge devices don't have the compute power, the private servers will process your data and send the results back to your model. They can't do everything locally.
Their vision is bold and they are inventing solutions to bring about this new paradigm. They'll keep inventing until they deliver a worth while product. I'd rather they wait to get it right before release.

As long as there’s nothing to show it’s vapoware to me. By the time it’s ready… what timeframe are we talking about? How far will competitors be who already deliver the things Apple was showing in the ads?

Siri is 15 years old now. Apple never made it better in all those years. So now of a sudden we will get super Siri 2.0 in the future?

Seeing is believing. So far I’ve seen nothing but hearing vaporware.

 

[cybertek]

What a joke. For me, Siri is slower than ever.

 

[newdeal]

I mean 60% to 80% is leaps and bounds better than the 0% the current Siri gets right

 

[dannyyankou]

I really hate invoking “Steve would’ve blah blah blah”, but really, Steve would’ve had a much different approach and message to the team. Heads would roll.

 

[9081094]

I’m genuinely curious to see
this year’s WWDC keynote. I wonder if they will focus on the new UI design to not let Apple Intelligence take the spotlight. Because that would mean readvertising the same features they showed during past WWDC.

Don’t hold your breath because the Apple under Timmy has no shame.

Timmy will only get in action when his financial spreadsheet tells too.

Timmy has no shame by selling old technology with minimal technical changes with the same design for years at premium prices.

Fire Timmy and replace him with a leader with a vision and heart for technology and a good balance in profits.

Out with the greed and in with the vision and passion for tech.

 

[ADB1025]

All of the anger and angst is entertaining in a can't look away from the car crash, diversionary sense, but meaningless in any practical way and meaningless to Tim Cook and the Apple team. It's cliche, but for a reason, because it is true and it's never been more true. Until and unless the financial implications take on a similar volume to the complaining, it will be business as usual. I'm personally rooting for the stock to drop in a massive, massive way. Unlike Tesla and Elon, I do think the Apple leadership would be shaken and respond in kind to a Tesla like stock drop. Tim Cook's passion is stock price. He's not looking at tech schematics, he's looking at balance sheets. He needs to see red, and lots of it, for this to matter. By all means complain, but you can trace any real chance at change to sales numbers and stock price.

 

[TechWhisperer]

Dramatic much? And this, purportedly mind you, was internal. Just normal job things. They didn't hold a press conference. You're losing your respect for Apple? Go buy a PC, what is stopping you? I can't imagine living my life like this, LOL.

But you can imaging reacting to me. Also never asked for your advice, yeah. Don’t worry, you’re clearly living the dream my man!

 

[Billy_Bob]

Apple senior director Robby Walker... praised the hard work of employees...

Steve Jobs praised successful results. Praising hard work that hasn't brought success is like giving out participation trophies. Apple would be better off hiring engineers who could build a successful Siri without breaking a sweat, then motivating them to work even harder to make it even better. Praising "hard work" that isn't also successful work is only going to perpetuate failure. Walker apparently wants to kiss his snowflakes' boo-boos and make them better. But Siri won't succeed until/unless it can make those employees work better -- smarter, not harder.

 

[Howard2k]

Tim: Walker - you're fired.
Walker: But why?
Tim: some guy on the Internet said so.
Walker: But what involvement has this person had in the process?
Tim: None, but bye.

 

[dannyyankou]

My favorite is when I tell siri to turn up/down the volume on the homepod. She then just lowers/raises her own voice for some reason.....
But yea, I limit my siri interactions to just setting a timer, as that seems to be the best case scenario for her actually completing a task still only correctly like 90% of the time.

This is because it gets louder if you raise your voice towards it. And vice verse, if you speak quietly it responds quieter.

You need to turn off “automatically adjust Siri volume” in HomePod accessibility settings.

 

[AppleFan91]

Apple totally missed the boat on streaming until they suddenly didn't and Apple Music is a perfectly fine competitor to Spotify. Likewise they totally missed the boat on watches until the Apple Watch came out and made everything else obsolete...etc, etc, etc.

It'll be fine, agreed.

Yep. Along with always on displays, wireless charging (with MagSafe), larger screen phones, so on and so forth. Now in fairness, Apple didn’t announce those products and then delay them and/or sell devices advertising those features, so again - Apple is not blameless and deserves criticism here - mostly for their advertisement of something they KNEW wasn’t ready. But the talk of doom and gloom is reactionary at best. Come back in 5 years and more than likely this will be a blip. If not, maybe Apple did miss this and it costs them dearly. But people in this thread saying stuff like “the downfall of Apple”. Cmon. You’re more likely to find a customer who don’t even know what Apple intelligence is than one who knows and cares it’s delayed.

 

[Think|Different]

But you can imaging reacting to me. Also never asked for your advice, yeah. Don’t worry, you’re clearly living the dream my man!

Nothing you said makes any sense. Maybe that's why Siri doesn't respond to you correctly. Maybe Bixby is more your style since you're so stressed about Apple delivering AI features that you're simultaneously eschewing.

 

[9081094]

Dramatic much? And this, purportedly mind you, was internal. Just normal job things. They didn't hold a press conference. You're losing your respect for Apple? Go buy a PC, what is stopping you? I can't imagine living my life like this, LOL.

That’s a typical in denial answer. There is definitely something wrong at Apple.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Dramatic much? And this, purportedly mind you, was internal. Just normal job things. They didn't hold a press conference. You're losing your respect for Apple? Go buy a PC, what is stopping you? I can't imagine living my life like this, LOL.

Commenting on and harshly putting down someone's opinion ... that is the way to live your life? ... Shudder....

 

[TechWhisperer]

Nothing you said makes any sense. Maybe that's why Siri doesn't respond to you correctly. Maybe Bixby is more your style since you're so stressed about Apple delivering AI features that you're simultaneously eschewing.

Oh boy. Slowly breathe in… aaaand slowly breathe out. We clearly Think|Different.

 

[klasma]

I don't get it. If you don't have it fully functioning, why promise, or even promote, a delivery date? Just say, "It's coming" and keep working on it.

Don’t say “It’s coming” until you’re actually sure you can deliver.

 

[ace8cjc]

This story makes it even more apparent that the culture of excellence is degrading at Apple.

The (in)famous MobileMe failure saw Steve Jobs berate the team, demand better, replace the lead executive on the spot, and so on.

Here, the leader of Siri is coddling the team, hoping they don’t feel bad and asking them to stay motivated?

Sounds like Apple is hiring the wrong type of people now. The people who worked for Jobs likely expected better of themselves if they failed. They also knew he wouldn’t stand for poor software experiences.

With this group, it sounds like Apple is afraid they might very well quit because of a little bad press.

 

[DroidBro]

Here is the problem as I see it:

They advertised a product that didn’t yet exist, vaporware.

They kept pushing the goal posts of the release window with no real or meaning acknowledgment of the shortcomings.

They clearly learned nothing from the Apple Maps debacle.

To fix:

Tim Cook should address the problems head on in an interview, or a video. Apologize for delays. Detail which steps they are taking to correct the issue.

Tim Cook should take personal responsibility for this failure, as he is the ceo and rushed it out the door like he did maps.

Hire more engineers to work on the problem and integrate chatgbt or Gemini into Siri.

Ultimately, it is time for a new leader/ceo at Apple. Tim was great for the bottom line but he has zero vision compared to Steve. Apple Watch and Vision Pro are great products that he oversaw but it’s time to pass the baton. The iPhone has remained largely the same for years now and it is what keeps their doors open. This oversight is sad. Tim is leading them into their blackberry era by releasing the same devices year or year with no meaningful updates. I don’t want to hear “what could they add” Pick up and android phone. There are tons of interesting features and revamps to existing features that could be put in place to keep up and keep interest in iOS. The customization, what little of it there was in iOS 18, was a good start but they need to stay on that path.

I think he should stay on as a cfo or something but it’s time for a more innovative leader again like Steve.

 

[masterleep]

How is it possible that Giannandrea still has a job? Siri has been treading water for a decade or more now. I just don't get it.