What’s the reason you would upgrade or buy an iPhone? A better design? More powerful chipset? Camera upgrades? Those seem like good reasons, but if you said Apple Intelligence, there’s a good chance you’re in the minority here. This is because, based on analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s sources, even Apple knows that Apple Intelligence is underwhelming and that it won’t drive iPhone upgrades.
Even Apple knows it
Apple officially introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC last year. While Apple announced its AI-powered suite at the event, it took the company a while to roll it out. Even today, not all of Apple Intelligence’s features are out yet. For instance, the anticipated AI upgrade for Siri has been delayed even further.
Kuo has cautioned against being too optimistic that Apple Intelligence could drive sales. In a recent post on X/Twitter, he said that Apple is aware of Apple Intelligence’s underwhelming demand. So much so that the company allegedly provided suppliers with a more conservative iPhone shipment forecast.
“Lately, the market consensus has shifted to a more cautious stance on iPhone shipments and Apple Intelligence (Siri), which supports my earlier predictions. Moreover, it’s clear that when Apple shared conservative shipment forecasts with its key suppliers early this year, they had already factored in Apple Intelligence’s underwhelming performance,” Kuo stated.
Poorly handled crisis
Kuo also expressed his disappointment with how Apple handled the delay of the Siri upgrade. One of the biggest changes users were probably looking forward to was the AI upgrade of Siri. Siri assistant has been a joke ever since its inception, and it hasn’t changed. However, reports emerged of Apple working on an improved Siri with AI-powered conversational capabilities like ChatGPT. This seemed like a dream come true for Apple fans.
Sadly, the feature was delayed, and instead of announcing it officially, Apple simply updated its Apple Intelligence page with fine print that reads, “This feature is in development and will be available with a future software update.” According to Kuo, he thinks Apple should have handled this the same way Steve Jobs did back in the day with the iPhone 4’s Antennagate scandal.
In any case, the latest reports claim that we shouldn’t expect any major Apple Intelligence features this year. Apple will bake more AI features into existing apps instead of introducing groundbreaking new ones.
2025-03-14 15:04:39