John Gruber Says 'Something is Rotten' at Apple

[Bampf]

Gruber is correct. Credibility matters more to Apple than many companies, especially since they market themselves as consumer privacy champions. If consumers don't trust Apple, it will be impossible to convince them that Apple is not selling their data.

The trap that Apple fell into is, making specific promises about AI capabilities is extremely difficult. Current AI is overhyped already, and Apple's privacy policies make it even more difficult to implement. "Autocorrect on steroids" is a good way to describe how AI currently works, and it works better when it has access to all your history.

So I'm not surprised that this AI marketing target failed, nor was I surprised when the Apple car failed. These failures are not unique to Apple - Musk and Uber also have failed spectacularly to deliver their big autonomous driving promises.

Apple still can make a ton of money on AI by delivering power efficient servers for it. And in fact they are planning to do that. They should leave the overpromising to more short-sighted companies, fire whoever painted them into this corner, and try to earn their credibility back.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

The girl on the image 'More personal Siri' looks like something from a weird Ari Aster horror movie.

She reminds me of this guy:

 

[SBlue1]

I personally feel he's spot on.

Steve made bold promises and made them happen with the assistance of Johnny Ive et al.

Tim is making promises he doesn't have the ability to make his staff come true.

So many balls dropped, not just this.

Oh come on, Steve did have his broken promises and huge misses too and they were not just a few. Don't you remember MobileMe and its slow and buggy start? iTunes Ping? iPhone 4 and him personally saying you're holing it wrong? iPod Hifi? The G4 Cube? Apple Maps?

 

[smaffei]

I remember when MobileMe had a release that took a dump and got bad reviews from Mossberg. Steve got the entire development team in a room to talk about what went wrong and how they were going to fix it. Same thing with Antennaegate. Press conference where people could ask questions directly to the leadership team and then gave a tour of their research facility for the phone to show how they tested it. This would be a great time for Tim to eat some crow and get in front of it. Do I think that will happen, no. Because Tim is a supply chain genius and Steve was a marketing and sales genius who knew how to get the best technologists to perform and how to sell to the press and public. I'm not saying this is the death knell for Apple. I have too much of their stock to predict that but this does seriously damage Apple's credibility. Selling vaporware is not a good look. And yes, Steve bent the truth many times or how market ready some things were but he was almost always able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and get things working when he said they would. Having Gruber say negative things about Apple is just about as shocking as when Mossberg said them about MobileMe.

You forgot one important facet… Jobs fixed it firing the leader of MobileMe on stage. (It's in the Issacson biography.)

 

[thadoggfather]

They couldn't have chose a better actress to be the poster child for Apple's smugness and excitement over vaporware as of late:

 

[qnssekr]

Someone is overreacting and being a bit dramatic. AI sucks and apple is trying to make it better.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I can’t agree more with you. I’ve been looking at other products and slowly planning leaving the Apple products behind. Laptop, phone, watch, etc…I pretty much have it all and going to start looking elsewhere. This is sad to me because I’ve liked and purchased Apple products since the Pismo G3…no longer. This is due to my lost faith in Apple and the fact that Tim Cook is still at the helm. Nothing will change until he’s gone.

Sad thing is the alternatives are even worse. I have the laptop, phone, watch, iPad, etc as well. Basically all of it.

Windows has gone totally off the rails, 11 is garbage. It finally has fundamental improvements they've needed for years, but as usual you can't get those without all the garbage they've shoveled into it.

Samsung's latest phone is actually getting pushback in the Android world for being a lazy upgrade and copy of Apple.

Pixel is looking better than ever but I still don't trust Google to pay attention to anything for longer than a year, and they're just as full of weird bugs and problems as iOS ever is.

The other TV streamers are even more full of ads, whole interface is ads. At least Apple is sticking to pushing TV+ hard for now and no ads in the interface, and it's still fast.

iPad is lackluster but still nobody else makes a simple high quality tablet. Android is just too busy on a tablet and you have to get into their ecosystem just as deep as Apple's to make use of it, I don't want to deal with two app stores.

Apple is really annoying me with their haphazard approach to software lately. But for all its faults, this walled garden is still a bit of an oasis in a desert of ads and mediocrity.

 

[HylianKnight]

I agree, the delay doesn’t really matter. The real problem is Apple pitched a story, one that was used to promote and advertise their new products, and that story is turning out to be a fiction. I don’t think is was malicious, or that Apple intentionally misled, but I do suspect a systemic failure of communication and leadership.

 

[spazzcat]

This exact fiasco is one of reason why Apple cancelled the spring keynote and opted to release everything via press release. The only part Apple filmed for the keynote was the iPhone 16e. In fact, the highlight of the keynote was to be the M3 Ultra and Mac Studio but that portion was never filmed because Apple cancelled the event by then.

Apple could be in trouble big time because they were way over-optimistic on Apple Intelligence timeline and have everything done on device that they announced things way ahead of schedule thinking they can deliver before this year’s WWDC. Obviously they hit the wall, because of hardware limitation. They could compromise and go via cloud AI method but that is something Apple won’t do, not just privacy but attention to detail.

Or they pivoted and went back to their plans of releasing it in iOS 19.

 

[sracer]

Apple is on track to succumb to the same twilight phase of the life of a tech behemoth corporation that Microsoft suffered from.

At its peak, Microsoft could simply "say" something and the market would respond as if it was true. They could make a promise of hardware or software that was in the pipeline that either never saw the light of day, or was a mere shadow of what the PowerPoint presentations promised.

That was when the acronym FUD (Fear, Uncertaintly, and Doubt) was created. Microsoft would catch wind of something innovative that a smaller, more nimble company was doing. They would then make announcements of some upcoming hardware or software that promised something bigger and better than what that smaller company was providing.

That would instill fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the minds of corporate executives about the viability of that smaller company's offering... fear of it getting flattened by the 800 lb. gorilla (Microsoft). The result? Those execs would hold off on buying that smaller company's product.

Sales for that company's product stalled. Sometimes sales dwindled down. Over time, it was no longer a threat and Microsoft would pull the plug on development of the alternative (if they even started doing something) or simply never mention it again. Alternatively, Microsoft would buy out that smaller company at a discount and assimilate that product into the Microsoft portfolio.

I think this is where Apple is now. It doesn't happen overnight. (and it didn't in Apple's case) Sure, naysayers will say, "nay... Apple is fine, just look at its stock price". Everything is fine until it is not. Just because Apple is in this phase, it doesn't mean that they won't continue to make solid products. Just that over time, there will be an increase in over-promising and under-delivering.

 

[smaffei]

I personally think that most consumers don't really care about Apple Intelligence. (It wasn't my reason for buying a 16 Pro Max. I bought it for best battery capacity).

But, customers do seize on the bad press about a company that advertised a feature of product that didn't exist upon actual receipt of it. It's perceived by many as intentional deception just to sell something. While it may not even be true, it doesn't matter. It's what is perceived to be true. And, that is what influences future purchase decisions.

 

[spazzcat]

Agree, chatgpt, grok, deepai, deepseekai, claude they are amazing and Siri is waaaaaay behind, infact i dont see much change from its first iteration from iphone4S frankly speaking and they never worked in that direction. I never saw any kind of signitficant update. But i'm pretty optmistic they will catch up with AI, they got hit hard in the guts with advent of chatgpt.

If you think the current offerings are amazing you have blinders on, they get the job done most of the time, but they are far from amazing.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

This is a lot of hoopla for some delayed features. At the end of the day Apple is a company ran by and filled with humans. Can't always get it right on the first time on time every time.

 

[tomsop]

The danger here is not the lie itself but these false features were announced as part of a sales pitch to get you to order the Iphone 16. This is legal fraud and if you claim you bought the Iphone 16 understanding this would be ready "this fall" and it is not you should be able to turn in your phone for a refund. Apple has to pay. Lesson: Never buy a phone based on future promises. This is why I skipped the 16 - I hate that wait for later stuff because Apple did the same thing with prior versions of Ipad OS. In that case they did deliver but it was winter, not fall. If I am not mistaken it was Stage Manager - delivered late. Actually it was External Display support - in december. Remember they limited this stuff to just the M1 which was a false limitation. Gruber is late to criticize - I started criticizing and realizing the sheen of excellence and integrity was lost back in 2022 with the lies. For instance 2 years earlier they claimed the Ipad Pro was faster then any Windows laptop but somehow I had to have M1 to run stage manager when I had the last Ipad Pro with non m chip which itself was faster than any Windows laptop? ******** begin in 2022 - Gruber is late to the party.

 

[HylianKnight]

Someone is overreacting and being a bit dramatic. AI sucks and apple is trying to make it better.

Oh I completely agree. The products we call “AI” today are meh. The problem Apple has here is that they advertised Apple Intelligence in their marketing material for the new phones. A trillion dollar company wrote a check their ass couldn’t cash.

 

[HylianKnight]

This is a lot of hoopla for some delayed features. At the end of the day Apple is a company ran by and filled with humans. Can't always get it right on the first time on time every time.

Accurate, but mistakes, whether accidental or malicious, often have consequences. It’s not the delay; it’s the almost-promise Apple made. I’m sure the words Apple chose will insulate them from any legal consequence, but they certainly have a bit of egg on their faces.

 

[victorvictoria]

I'm sorry what?! Steve didn't do that. It was total secrecy. Look at the iPod or original iPhone. He didn't make crazy promises he showed up and showed off what they had. Demos being hugely important to his method.

I worked for Apple from 2003-2014, and yes he did make crazy promises, all the time! Please watch the movie "Jobs" with Michael Fassbinder. Or read the excellent, authorized biography, "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, the result of hundreds of hours of interviews with Jobs. Both will give you some insight into Jobs pie in the sky promises, followed by a relentless bullying of his engineers to make them real.

 

[throAU]

This obviously isn't the first time that Apple has failed to deliver. However, Gruber said other examples like the canceled AirPower charging mat "tended to be around the edges," whereas he believes that generative AI is going to be "big" and "important."

This is just another mobileMe to iCloud moment.

It will pass.

 

[Octavius8]

we have been saying that Apple is just recycling. IOS is prehistoric, Apple can’t even do a basic phone app!!!, the iPhone phone app is pathetic. And they wanted AI?, they just sell mirrors since 5 years ago.
iPhone innovation died a long time ago.
No foldable, poor stock apps like phone, notes, calendar, calculator, mail. Apple just wants to do less and tell investors they are doing all right.
The board should fine Tim with MILLIONS for his insistence on launching useless products and no innovation.
16Pro was touted for AI, it was a lie to get people into buying it.
17 is just a aesthetic refresh in and out. No new useful features. Just cosmetic and a slogan “the fastest iPhone ever”.

 

[rishey]

AI was oversold in general. It's like the self-driving car. It's not just apple.

 

[eliteoOSX27]

....this is the thing that did it for him?

Not over 10 years of dropping the ball on Siri?
Not the ever-more buggy iOS platforms?
Not a business model that is increasingly built on rent-seeking?
Not selling commodity storage and memory for 5x or more than the industry standard because they know their customers have no other choice?
Not several years of selling defective macbooks who's keyboards couldn't be typed on?
Not billions wasted on a car that never made sense and never came to market?

Apple is a business. When the board of directors look at financial statements and the stock price of the past ten years. It’s difficult to replace cook. If cook didn’t get canned for the items you mentioned. I can bet my ass he will not get canned for the mess that is apple AI. People will continue to buy iPhones and subscribe to apples other services. Until they do not , then his position may be in jeopardy.

 

[doc james]

I fear that Apple entered into voice assistants and then AI not because it wanted to but because of market pressure. They had already established two principles:

1) We want you to see us as the secure option: we will never have access to your data. This may have been because of Jobs' genuine ideology or it may because it was a low cost option (vs building bigger data centres or insuring against huge financial/reputational damage from a data leak). I'm not clear it sells huge numbers of devices any longer.

This has painted them into a corner of on-device processing. I believe Siri is poor because it simply doesn't have the processing power of AWS (for example) behind it. I'm no expert but I imagine Artificial Intelligence benefits from off device processing too?

2) We're the good guys and nothing nasty will ever happen on our devices. (see also anti-baddie clause on film product placement).

The further you move from fuzzy logic to ML to Artificial Intelligence, the less you can rely on that. We've already have image playground generate offensive images.

They've been stung by the discovery that all emerging technologies rely on significant open data sharing. They either have to row back on the principles or look to diversify into something else where they can hold onto them. The Apple Watch is market leader (in a tiny market sadly for them) because they are great at design aesthetics for example.

 

[SilmarilFinder]

As of now, when it comes to AI hype vs actual product delivery, the only real difference between Rabbit AI and Apple is about $3 trillion.

Both sold vapourware, both flopped albeit one did it with a lot more zeros

 

[TonnyM]

AI is a long term game. The worst Apple can do is to rush it up and compromise on privacy and security.

 

[Octavius8]

Apple is sustained by the government by artificially blocking that Chinese phone maker and inventing lies, Apple became arrogant and self pleasing and stopped to compete. iPhones have are the most mediocre phones in the market now.
The worst value of features vs price in the market.
Another year without “upgrading” it seems.