WWDC 2025 Proved That Apple Learned a Valuable Lesson

[Scrooge MacDuck]

The company is washed. They're just way too big now and not able to think clearly and cohesively on executing a singular vision. The "big reveal" is literally just a windows aero skin on the UI. Seriously? lol

The corporate structure is now 30-40 teams, each with a budget and headcount bigger than most startups, all fighting and competing against eachother internally for promotions.

You can tell by how robotic and soulless all the hosts were that all the employees care about is the stock price and their TC. Nobody cares anymore about being revolutionary or disruptive or making an iMac/iPod/iPhone-tier product- that era is over.

Well, I've been saying this for a while, yet what can we do? Don't like, don't buy it. It's that simple.

P.S. Isn't Aero the best thing that can happen to that UI, given how long it's been dull now? Also, weren't you going to complain anyway, whether about Aero, Metro, or Material You?

 

[klasma]

Emojis are developed by the governing body/bodies responsible for Unicode, not by Apple. All Apple does is create the glyphs used for Emojis on Apple devices. This is an example of Apple keeping up with the times, not wasting time.

The Unicode emoji working group is vice-chaired by Apple, and was previously chaired by Apple (they take turns with Google). Most of the new emoji proposals come out of that working group and aren't external proposals. New emojis are for the most part jointly devised by Apple and Google,

 

[klasma]

I bought the M4 iPad Pro and Series 10 Apple Watch last year. I am in the market for a new iPhone and updated AirPods Pro this year. Still on the fence regarding the M4 MBA since my M1 is still going strong. But I ain't going anywhere.

I think the question was whether fans are still so hyped about new Apple products that they are physically waiting in line in front of Apple Stores on launch day. That has drastically diminished, I believe.

 

[MRrainer]

It seems they learned one lesson but failed to learn another. People want REAL upgrades, not just some cool colors here, some shiny graphics there. Many of these ‘features’ they release, majority of folks I dare say don’t even use them. There’s not a single thing released by Apple in recent times, software wise, that’s made me feel like wow I really have to have that. This also goes for Android, I’m really believing tech is out of actual fresh ideas and trying to buy themselves time to try and come up with something.

Most people have „old“ hardware that doesn’t even enable those features.

I upgrade macOS and iOS for the security updates.

 

[tomekwsrod]

The new flashy UI will consume more processing power (animations, translucency) and battery energy, but I'm unsure after the presentation what addedd value we get from it.

 

[unregbaron]

I think the glass aesthetic will cause problems once released to a mainstream audience. Many will find it a challenge to use and will want to revert to high contrast using accessibility settings.

 

[SebCohen]

Apple never learns and never will. They won’t change until sales hurt them. It worked when they were innovative and nobody else was. But that’s no longer the reality we live in.

They always think they know best and they’re always right and we’re always wrong. Then they hide behind being "bold", sales slow or tank, they refuse to change for a few years, then change and sales explodes and they congratulate themselves.

They remove ports, they design ridiculous keyboards that nobody wants (that break and they first refuse to acknowledge is a problem), they vehemently refuse to bump storage and memory (and reuse to offer any resemblance of fair price to upgrade).

Hey, Apple is a great company and their products are good.

But most, if not ALL their innovations the past 10 years have been failures they’ve been forced to backtrack on. Hey, don’t blame the messenger. And yeah, perhaps some innovation hasn’t been, but the dominating sentiment for most of their customers is that they haven’t been innovative.

And each time they give customers what they actually want, they sell like hotdogs and Fenway Park.

Which just goes to show, Apple, now as a mature company, needs to do some customer surveys to find out what we want to use our money on. ESPECIALLY now that times are harder and likely will get even harder.

 

[Steve121178]

It seems they learned one lesson but failed to learn another. People want REAL upgrades, not just some cool colors here, some shiny graphics there. Many of these ‘features’ they release, majority of folks I dare say don’t even use them. There’s not a single thing released by Apple in recent times, software wise, that’s made me feel like wow I really have to have that. This also goes for Android, I’m really believing tech is out of actual fresh ideas and trying to buy themselves time to try and come up with something.

Most tech companies are only interested in implementing new things as long as they can monetize it, otherwise they won't bother.

Although I did like a lot of the new things coming to macOS, none of it is ground-breaking. Just a bit of spit & polish here and there. And the only reason iPadOS got some semi-drastic long overdue changes is to try and sell more iPad's.

 

[Schwarzmaler20]

The one, the main lesson they have not learned yet: whenever possible present in person.

 

[bluecoast]

Truth be told, the tech industry is running out of features they're able to add on an already packed device.

This.

If I have to act as tech support for my mother I realise just how many settings there are now in iOS and how bewildering they are for people who don’t frequent sites like this.

Even if Genai wasn’t a thing you’d have to invent it.

We’re now at the state where there’s so much going on in our devices, that having a helpful concierge / executive assistant just to sort out your digital stuff is near being near essential for most people.

 

[bluecoast]

I don't know if it is just me, but I'm really feeling update overload these days. Every couple of months, there's a "big" new feature coming in a point release. It's just kind of overwhelming and makes my brain "check out" and my general reaction when there's a new point release is... Ugh. Again.

I'm not complaining about lack of innovation or complaining that Apple has lost it's way or that Apple's quality control is going downhill or any of the other annoying mantras that infect the forums, I don't have an issue with any of those things.

I just feel like every time I turn around there is a significant upgrade and significant (or semi-significant) new feature.

I kind of just wish they'd release all their new features each year in the x.0 release, and then all subsequent releases for the year would be just bug fixes and refinements. And that's it. Not ready for the x.0 release? Then wait until next year!

The x.0 release should DEFINE the feature set of that release. The point updates should be fixes.

Just my opinion.

I know what you mean about feature overload but I’d argue that they already put too much into the point oh release and this is really affecting quality.

I’d rather they took the more agile / devops approach that google seems to and release features incrementally.

Apple have been doing something like this with the ‘emoji’ and (northern hemisphere) spring updates - I’d like to see them go further.

 

[iMac The Knife]

I think WWDC 2025 proved that Apple hasn't learned anything!

 

[PBG4 Dude]

With this new version naming scheme based on the year, they could also have seasonal feature updates and introduce them during the new hardware events.

Maybe they can release new features in battle passes.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

This is just my opinion but unless it’s something devs need to prepare to there’s zero reasons to announce features ahead of time

You don’t need to build hype, you can just go “oh by the way in iOS 26.2 we just added a major new feature” and people will be just as excited

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I don’t understand why Apple announces updates to emojis during WWDC. Maybe I’m too old to understand, lol. I will say I am enjoying iPadOS 26 on my 12.9 iPad Pro in relation to the new windows management.

It’s the exact same reason why Steve Jobs used to demo things like Photo Booth filters and backgrounds at WWDC back in the day.
The majority of consumers, especially younger consumers, love this stuff.

 

[dasjati]

Last year's situation was a clear example of giving in to the news cycle, which claimed Apple was lagging in AI. That’s like Wall Street in 2006 saying Apple was behind in smartphones—they weren’t shipping a smartphone yet! They were developing it, and when it was ready, they announced it to the world in 2007.

Exactly. Remember Netbooks? Apple was obviously FAILING as a company, because they didn't offer a piece of crap laptop for a few hundred bucks.

I feel like Tim Cook's Apple is too often trying to be first instead of being best. The Vision Pro for example is a surely a great device. But there's barely a market for this, let alone for this price.

The iPod was not the first MP3 play. The iPhone not the first smartphone. The iPad not the first tablet. The list goes on and on.

Apple was always best when they watched competitors fail in a potentially lucrative and fitting market and then presented something opinionated that was a better choice for a good chunk of that market (not the best for everyone, but clearly the best choice for a certain group of people).

I've seen some rumors how Tim Cook is trying to rush AR glasses to market before Meta has theirs out. Old Apple would have not cared about that at all. They would have kept working on their ideas, tried out the competition, made notes about every single thing that sucked, and than made their own thing.

 

[mabhatter]

I appreciate a "housekeeping year". We've needed a year off from "big new features" for like 5-6 years now. Let's hope Apple is taking time to get these new minor improvements made as well as housecleaning a bunch of stuff that has become a PITA of minor glitches and missing parts.

 

[CalMin]

Exactly. Remember Netbooks? Apple was obviously FAILING as a company, because they didn't offer a piece of crap laptop for a few hundred bucks.

I feel like Tim Cook's Apple is too often trying to be first instead of being best. The Vision Pro for example is a surely a great device. But there's barely a market for this, let alone for this price.

The iPod was not the first MP3 play. The iPhone not the first smartphone. The iPad not the first tablet. The list goes on and on.

Apple was always best when they watched competitors fail in a potentially lucrative and fitting market and then presented something opinionated that was a better choice for a good chunk of that market (not the best for everyone, but clearly the best choice for a certain group of people).

I've seen some rumors how Tim Cook is trying to rush AR glasses to market before Meta has theirs out. Old Apple would have not cared about that at all. They would have kept working on their ideas, tried out the competition, made notes about every single thing that sucked, and than made their own thing.

Agree.

I think it's because Cook is genuinely wanting to be remembered for ushering in some world changing product before he retires. He shouldn't be so insecure - Tim Cook has presided over the one greatest eras of stockholder value creation in history and he should be proud of that legacy. Ok - so he's not the father of a product equivalent to Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad etc... it doesn't mean he's not successful. Instead, I get the sense he's trying to be visionary creator of Apple Watch, Vision Pro, Apple Intelligence. Relax Tim....

 

[Astuces iOS]

At its WWDC 2024 keynote last year, Apple previewed a more personalized version of Siri that has since been delayed until next year. Subsequently, Apple was hit with class action lawsuits that accuse the company of false advertising, and well-known Apple commentator John Gruber strongly criticized the company over the situation.

Apple also missed its promised 2024 timeframe for launching next-generation CarPlay, which it first announced all the way back at WWDC 2022. The company finally announced the launch of CarPlay Ultra last month, with the software system rolling out in high-end Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada to start.

It appears that Apple learned a valuable lesson.

During its WWDC 2025 keynote, there was a noticeable lack of new software features that Apple promised as coming later this year. The company did say that Apple Intelligence will be gaining support for additional languages later this year, but most of those languages had already been announced months ago. Over the past several years, on the other hand, there were typically quite a few "later this year" labels on Apple's software pages.

Still, not every new feature announced at WWDC 2025 is available in the first betas of Apple's latest software releases. The lack of "later this year" phrasing suggests that those features will be ready by time iOS 26 and the other updates are released in September, however, as opposed to subsequent versions like iOS 26.1 or iOS 26.2.

Overall, it is clear that Apple is being more cautious, as was expected. In a report last month about Apple's artificial intelligence shortcomings, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett cited sources who said that Apple planned to mostly stop announcing new features more than a few months before they are ready to launch. Based on the WWDC 2025 keynote, that does appear to be the company's approach for now.

Article Link: WWDC 2025 Proved That Apple Learned a Valuable Lesson

Yay it was one of my wishes before wwdc !