Apple is losing the AI race and might never recover

Summary

Apple’s history of being late but better doesn’t apply to its slow approach to AI.

Apple’s AI features have been underwhelming, offering little that competitors weren’t already doing.

Apple is at risk of being left far behind in the AI field.

Something is rotten in the state of Cupertino. After the announcement of Apple Intelligence as a central part of iOS 18, it seemed like Apple finally jumped on the AI bandwagon before it got left behind.

However, things have not gone according to plan. When iOS 18 launched, all of Apple Intelligence’s key functionality was missing, and even now, some of the most significant features still haven’t arrived. We were led to believe they were imminent, with most pundits expecting the long-overdue upgrade to Siri to arrive with iOS 18.4 in April.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, however, the feature was initially pushed back to iOS 18.5, and now an Apple spokesperson has confirmed that the more advanced version of Siri might not arrive until next year at the earliest. With Apple’s artificial intelligence plans in disarray, the company is in danger of being entirely left behind.

Apple has a history of arriving late but winning the game

Being the best rather than the first has worked well so far

Apple / Pocket-lint

It’s a cliché, but for a good reason. Apple is notorious for rarely being the first to create a product, but often manages to make something far more popular than what’s come before.

The iPod, for example, was far from being the first MP3 player, but Apple’s version became incredibly popular. The company then repeated that success with the iPhone, bringing the smartphone into the mainstream and earning the company huge success.

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Apple didn’t make the first tablet, wireless earbuds, smartwatch, or Bluetooth tracker, but its version of these products have all been very successful.

Apple seriously dropped the ball with AI

The company has been incredibly slow to react

With such a track record, it’s a genuine surprise that Apple has not been able to repeat the same feat with AI. If it were to follow the same trend, you would expect Apple to be a little late to the party, but then drop a genuinely competitive platform that would make a lot of money.

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It just hasn’t happened, however. The company appears to have been caught completely flat-footed by the way that AI burst onto the scene. However, rather than scrambling to catch up and get a piece of the pie like many of its competitors have, Apple seems to have rested on its laurels, only to find that it had fallen way behind the pack.

Apple has put a lot of money into AI since then, but it started far too late. Currently, the company is nowhere near catching up with its competitors.

Apple Intelligence is far from a success

The current AI features are mostly underwhelming

Apple Intelligence is a case in point. Apple made AI the key focus of its announcement of iOS 18, even going as far as to try to re-frame what those two ubiquitous letters stood for by replacing “artificial” with “Apple.”

The reality is that Apple Intelligence can only be described as disappointing. First, the iPhone 16 launched with a total of zero Apple Intelligence features available. Not a single one. It was only with the release of iOS 18.1 more than a month later that the initial AI features finally arrived.