I do understand Gruber‘s Statement and criticism. Large companies like Apple tend do develop huge internal political problems that usually wreck project management timelines. The fish stinks at the TOP. Been there done that..
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John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple
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When Siri was first released as an app, it was a groundbreaking innovation that captured the public’s imagination. With Apple’s vast resources and expertise, the company had the potential to refine and elevate Siri into the most advanced and widely used AI-powered voice assistant in the world. However, Apple seemingly chose to deprioritize its development, assuming they could afford to neglect the division without significant consequences. It’s likely that Tim Cook never fully envisioned Siri’s true potential. Moreover, those responsible for acquiring Siri for nearly $200 million are almost certainly no longer part of Apple today.
Back in the day, if I ask Siri to set a timer for 3 minutes, it would reply "Setting timer for 3 minutes, don't overcook that egg". Now, Siri just starts a timer. So boring.
Back in the day, if I ask Siri to set a timer for 3 minutes, it would reply "Setting timer for 3 minutes, don't overcook that egg". Now, Siri just starts a timer. So boring.
The problem is not Tim but consumers buying anything they put out, supporting these practices & leadership.
Gruber is very correct on this. Apple’s hardware has never been better. Apple Silicon knocked it out of the park immediately and the current iPhones are great at stuff like connectivity, camera tech, etc. But year after year, Apple has dropped the ball on software. They used to lead on it so much that Steve Jobs joked several times in the 2000’s of “Redmond, start your photocopies” meaning Microsoft could now copy Apple’s homework.
Siri was the market leader when it first arrived in 2011. But within 3 years, Amazon and Google (among others) met and especially have long since surpassed Siri. It’s an embarrassment how little they’ve focused on it. It’s probably why they’re so far behind on generative/contextual AI. It’s just never been a priority for them. The problem is, it is a priority for customers. So many people just don’t use Siri because it’s bad at context and still sometimes fails to understand what I’m saying. The basic voice assistant for sending texts in my car I’ve had for less than a year understands me better than Siri, and Apple’s had my voice sent to their servers for almost 14 years!
As we’ve all likely been saying for years now, Apple needs to take a year off from super big updates and focus on fixing their core technology under the hood of iOS and macOS. A Snow Leopard year. That OS still remains the gold standard of “it just works”. I barely had any crashes except the initial 10.6 version, where there’s always bugs. Though the fact it was the first Intel-only OS and last OS compatible with Rosetta for PowerPC apps makes me worry Apple might not do another version of that until they drop Intel Mac support in 2026 or even 2027.
I feel like Apple engineers never really use Apple products not in their divisions, other than most of them likely daily driving iPhones and Macs. But let’s be honest, how many Apple engineers have a HomePod at home compared to, say, Amazon Echos? Not many. So they don’t know how bad Siri is except for feedback online. Apple completely missed the point of HomePod. Most consumers didn’t want an expensive speaker, they want a relatively cheap voice assistant device for timers and turning on/off smart lights.
Hell, it took until there was an article in the Wall Street Journey for Apple to finally dump the ****** Mac Butterfly keyboards. There needs to be a good look inside Apple of who to sack from their current leadership roles or Apple needs to hire more people externally who know how to make AI assistants and fix bugs.
Siri was the market leader when it first arrived in 2011. But within 3 years, Amazon and Google (among others) met and especially have long since surpassed Siri. It’s an embarrassment how little they’ve focused on it. It’s probably why they’re so far behind on generative/contextual AI. It’s just never been a priority for them. The problem is, it is a priority for customers. So many people just don’t use Siri because it’s bad at context and still sometimes fails to understand what I’m saying. The basic voice assistant for sending texts in my car I’ve had for less than a year understands me better than Siri, and Apple’s had my voice sent to their servers for almost 14 years!
As we’ve all likely been saying for years now, Apple needs to take a year off from super big updates and focus on fixing their core technology under the hood of iOS and macOS. A Snow Leopard year. That OS still remains the gold standard of “it just works”. I barely had any crashes except the initial 10.6 version, where there’s always bugs. Though the fact it was the first Intel-only OS and last OS compatible with Rosetta for PowerPC apps makes me worry Apple might not do another version of that until they drop Intel Mac support in 2026 or even 2027.
I feel like Apple engineers never really use Apple products not in their divisions, other than most of them likely daily driving iPhones and Macs. But let’s be honest, how many Apple engineers have a HomePod at home compared to, say, Amazon Echos? Not many. So they don’t know how bad Siri is except for feedback online. Apple completely missed the point of HomePod. Most consumers didn’t want an expensive speaker, they want a relatively cheap voice assistant device for timers and turning on/off smart lights.
Hell, it took until there was an article in the Wall Street Journey for Apple to finally dump the ****** Mac Butterfly keyboards. There needs to be a good look inside Apple of who to sack from their current leadership roles or Apple needs to hire more people externally who know how to make AI assistants and fix bugs.
I guess i will never understand the state of Siri.
Feels good to hear said out loud what a lot of us have been thinking. The concept that was sold as an intelligent Siri could have been then next great thing from apple and was the only reason I bought this iPhone 16PM. All that was delivered were children’s apps and more settings with preferences that have their own control panels, each with their own settings and preferences. What a mess, it’s all settings now. Apple hasn’t delivered anything new in years. I’m going to try something else while we wait to see if apple ever returns in my lifetime. I held on in the 90’s when apple was going through something similar post Macintosh and was such a proud Mac person in the 2000’s. All good thing I guess….
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I'm still wondering how many actually bought an iPhone 16 for the AI alone. Apple has traditionally gone by the Ford mantra: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”, i.e. not asking, but telling users what they really 'want'.
In the case of AI, it seems that Apple rushed something they weren't originally planning to have. Then I'd blame the investors and shareholders before the users.
I agree that Tim needs to go. While I have a low opinion of boomers in general, I think there are exceptions who are decent. Steve Jobs was a boomer, and he was the best man for the job, and still would've been if he were still alive. I don't think a younger person would be better than Tim Cook because of having a younger age. There are many Generation X, millenial, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha people in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that are equally as uninnovative, mediocre, and clueless as Cook. An older age can be a highly beneficial advantage for those who gathered experience and wisdom over their years. I'm sure there are at least a few Silent Generation people alive who have some Jobs-like visionary traits, and I'd rather one of them become Apple CEO than a Gen Alpha member with an MBA degree who thinks like Cook by focusing most on maximizing profits by cutting corners on hardware and software, thus reducing the user-friendliness of products.
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Read the entire blog. The example given about how the failure of MobileMe was addressed by Jobs was awesome. I’m not often a Tim Cook hater, I often forget he’s there, but I can’t say he’s that kind of strong leader. And this might be the best example yet.
This is a great insight, and one I agree with to a large extent. I work in the research AI field, and I can tell you that the VAST majority of this space, and the AI world in general, is selling a concept and then "building the plane as you're flying it." With notable exceptions, AI has missed the mark on delivering on its promise. We will now see slower, more incremental growth in the space. AGI is somewhat of a marketing gimmick.
Look at the successful AI companies. Rather than try to be all things to all people, they concentrate on doing some specific things well. A broad, deep, contextual AI overlay on top of Apple's operating system was not a reasonable goal given the current capabilities of AI.
Gemini works well, and I use it almost exclusively on my iPhone. I don't, and won't, trust to handle things on its own for a good long time. "Agentic AI" is just now becoming a thing. To go back to the plane metaphor, I would never want to fly on a plane without an autopilot feature, but I sure wouldn't want to fly on one with only an autopilot and no human pilot.
Exactly if you're so desperate for the wonders of AI just install the chatGPT app. So sick of the AI hype. I work in IT, and we have so many clients asking us to implement AI, when I ask them what they are trying to achieve or solve, they can't answer the question. Bloody hype train.
Apple were too ambitious to try to get this rolled out in such a short amount of time. So many people complaining on the forums that Apple release half baked software, now Apple say we need time to get it right, people aren't happy with that either.
I saw a guy say he was going to return a MacBook Air the other day after this announcement because Siri won't be that good. You're going to return one of the best computers you can get with a killer OS because Siri doesn't do what you want it to do?
This is why Tim should offer a full refund within 30 days to anyone who bought a 16 device with the AI marketing. Or $300 back as they will certainly lose a fortune in class action lawsuits over the lies and misinformation including false advertising.
This graph feels like priority number one at Apple and while they do everything for this graph users are more and more disillusioned with the company. It'll take time, but eventually it will reflect on this graph, it just takes longer. Or maybe not, they'll be able to recover all the love... once Tim Cook is gone and the teams can get back to the user and not just the product.
People harp on Tim Cook like he's an absolute disaster. I'm not a Cook fan, I want a technology/design guy at the helm, but surely just the release of their own processors under his leadership should give him a lot of credibility. Just that alone completely changed the landscape of the industry and Apple, and now they are making their own modems. It's not all bad.
I wouldn't say the enhanced Siri features not being ready yet is a disaster. I guess it's mis-representing, which isn't a good look at all. However, I doubt people bought whatever product specifically for these features.
Whilst it's not good to announce features and products that are nowhere near ready (Siri) or even abandon (AirPower), my main concern is the lack of focus on existing software. Apple brings out something and barely touches it again. There are many things that have bugs, user experience is frustrating or missing, or people don't need or want. Apple's work on its hardware is very impressive, to the point that the vast majority of people out there won't need such a powerful product. But they all use the software. Apple's Feedback app is useless. I have no idea if any of my reports are making any difference. I see in Apple's forums that the public are making solutions and workarounds, rather than any input from Apple itself. Its revamp of the Photos app in iOS and iPadOS is something nobody asked for, and everyone hates. But other features for other apps, Apple don't even look at
Whilst it's not good to announce features and products that are nowhere near ready (Siri) or even abandon (AirPower), my main concern is the lack of focus on existing software. Apple brings out something and barely touches it again. There are many things that have bugs, user experience is frustrating or missing, or people don't need or want. Apple's work on its hardware is very impressive, to the point that the vast majority of people out there won't need such a powerful product. But they all use the software. Apple's Feedback app is useless. I have no idea if any of my reports are making any difference. I see in Apple's forums that the public are making solutions and workarounds, rather than any input from Apple itself. Its revamp of the Photos app in iOS and iPadOS is something nobody asked for, and everyone hates. But other features for other apps, Apple don't even look at
The specific criticism from the blog post is that Apple promoted features in their WWDC presentation that were at that time so unfinished they couldn't even do a demo. Then they kept mentioning these features throughout the iPhone 16 release, but still it wasn't ready. Now it's been delayed (surprise) with no clear timeline provided.
This is not the Apple that we know. This is vapourware at a large scale, even if you downplay AI. They promised a feature set spanning all devices. It might even delay rumoured hardware like that HomePod-with-a-screen. This is much bigger than an accessory like AirPower and it's a rare occurrence still. Totally valid criticism IMO.
The writer came off like they shorted Apple stock. They know they get one chance to do the Siri upgrade, and they are not going to release it or show it off until they think it is ready.
They actually did show off features that were not ready. Stock market was happy, but that doesn't mean anything to me personally.