Apple’s WWDC Reality: Scaled Down AI Ambitions As The iPhone Remains Dominant
Apple’s WWDC Reality: Scaled Down AI Ambitions As The iPhone Remains Dominant
https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/apples-wwdc-reality-scaled-down-ai
Publish Date: 2026-06-08 11:31:00
Source Domain: www.bigtechnology.com
When Tim Cook takes the stage at Apple’s developer conference in Cupertino today, he’ll be leading Apple through yet another moment of transition.
It will be Cook’s last WWDC as CEO as he makes way for incoming leader John Ternus. And it’ll be the second WWDC in three years to promise AI improvements to Siri and iOS as Apple transitions into its artificial intelligence era.
For Apple, the stakes to get AI right are high, and the headlines will likely overreact to what’s announced. With that in mind, here are two essential pieces of context to keep in mind as you take in the news: 1) Apple’s AI stumbles haven’t hurt its business at all so far, as the iPhone17’s sold like crazy and no competitive ‘AI native’ device has emerged, and 2) After a very ambitious Apple Intelligence keynote in 2024, the company’s ambitions have scaled down to where the technology can actually deliver today. Let’s dive into both:
Despite the AI setbacks, Apple’s finances are in great shape. As of this morning, shares were up 55% year-over-year and up nearly 16% year to date. This is largely due to strong iPhone 17 sales: In the second quarter, iPhone revenue hit a new record and accounted for half of the company’s total $111.2 billion in revenue.
Even without a super-charged Siri, people can use top consumer AI apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity on their iPhones. And those apps’ underlying technology hasn’t (yet) been strong enough to power a dedicated AI device that competes with the iPhone (though OpenAI and a few others are trying).
Bottom line: Apple is still an iPhone company. And as long as the iPhone is selling, Apple is in good shape.
When Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC in 2024, it promised an almost-omniscient assistant that could understand your context and get things done for you. Infamously, it promised to be able to extract your mom’s flight details from your inbox, let you know when she’d be arriving at the airport by…
