Apple WWDC focuses on AI innovation, Siri upgrade delay causes stock price drop

According to Zhitong Finance APP, on the first day of the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple (AAPL.US) launched a series of AI-related feature updates and introduced a new design language called "Liquid Glass," bringing the most significant interface innovation to its latest iOS 26 operating system. However, due to the market's long-standing anticipation for advancements in the AI field, and the much-anticipated Siri upgrade still missing, investor reactions were lukewarm, with Apple's stock price dropping 1.5% to $200 during the conference.

Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, stated at the conference that the company is "continuously improving to make Siri more personalized," but also acknowledged that "this work requires more time to meet our high standards of quality," promising to provide more information next year. Previously, Siri, as one of the core components of Apple's AI strategy, has been widely criticized for lagging in functionality and struggling to compete with today's market smart assistants.

In terms of visual design, the "Liquid Glass" interface style introduced by Apple is a major highlight of iOS 26. Alan Dye, Vice President of User Interface, described it as "the largest design update ever."

In addition to the interface innovation, Apple also announced several new AI-driven features, including real-time translation in iMessage, automatic subtitles in FaceTime, and real-time conversation translation during phone calls. These features run locally on the device, avoiding the upload of personal data to the cloud, with Apple emphasizing its privacy-first principle: "Your personal conversations are always confidential."

For the Apple Watch, the new "Workout Buddy" feature also utilizes AI technology to provide voice encouragement during workouts and prompts users to achieve personalized goals.

CEO Tim Cook announced that all new systems will be available for developer testing starting that day, with a public beta set to be released next month and the official version expected to launch this fall.

However, analysts pointed out that while this WWDC outlined a future vision for the developer ecosystem, it lacked significant breakthroughs in "Apple Intelligence" progress. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives noted after the conference that Apple remains "quite conservative" in its AI efforts, maintaining a "outperform" rating for its stock price, with a target price unchanged for the next 12 months.

The market had already anticipated this. Last year, although Apple publicly introduced the "Apple Intelligence" strategy for the first time, core features, including the launch of the new Siri, have been repeatedly delayed. The AI features announced at the 2024 WWDC were mostly industry-standard items, such as text generation, image generation, and notification summarization, lacking significant differentiation advantages. The promised "cross-application operational Siri assistant" has yet to be delivered, and the existing AI experience has been underwhelming, with user feedback generally disappointing.

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, Apple has faced criticism for being "slow to start" in the AI race. Although it has already deeply applied AI in areas such as image, video, and audio processing, it has failed to integrate it into a practical smart assistant in a timely manner However, the high standards for privacy and security have slowed down the pace of feature development.

Currently, Apple Intelligence is divided into three layers: the first layer is device-local AI, which emphasizes that data does not leave the device, but is limited by hardware performance, resulting in limited effectiveness; the second layer is Apple's self-developed private cloud "Private Cloud Compute," which enhances privacy but does not match the powerful computing power of other tech companies that rely on NVIDIA (NVDA.US) chips; the third layer integrates OpenAI's ChatGPT functionality to compensate for the shortcomings of the first two layers, but Apple cannot fully guarantee user privacy in this part.

Apple emphasizes that all AI conversation content is processed in the private cloud, and no one can view it. However, this "end-to-end privacy control" system also means that it is temporarily lagging behind its peers in terms of computing power and service experience.

Apple currently has over 2 billion active devices worldwide, and each operating system update represents a direct touchpoint for billions of users. However, in the face of the AI wave, Apple's balance between "steady progress" and "technological leadership" makes it appear conservative in the eyes of some investors. Since 2025, Apple's stock price has fallen by 20%, and this WWDC has failed to reverse market sentiment