I guess I should not be surprised, but I am still furious. Apple shared with John Gruber earlier today that they are delaying the launch of the flagship new personalized Siri features for Apple Intelligence that were unveiled last summer at WWDC. We have been waiting what already feels like forever for these new features and it sounds like we are in for an even longer wait. Who knows if we will see these features in iOS 19.0 or if we will have to wait until early 2026 for a point release, but regardless this is a huge blow to the company’s efforts and reputation in the space. Their rollout of Apple Intelligence has already been haphazard. From marketing it in Apple Stores and in ads before it was ready to ship to dropping features in small separate releases over the past few months to a mostly “meh” reaction.

This feels like a gut punch, namely because we were already not confident that these delayed features could actually rival other AI tools. Apple’s Siri execution is not something that fills anyone with confidence. If these features arrive as they were announced months and months from now, ChatGPT, Gemini, Alexa+, etc. could already have made even further leaps ahead. I cannot help but think that this is sort of a combination of AirPower and MobileMe. It felt almost vaporware-like when revealed at WWDC and it certainly seems like they are having a great deal of difficulty making it a reality. Sounds a lot like AirPower, right? If it does not arrive fully fleshed out and reliable, then they will have to start over like they did with MobileMe and iCloud. In fact, they might have to start over anyway before they even ship anything.

I firmly believe they need to shake things up internally and consider a major acquisition in this new friendlier corporate environment. Get rid of Siri entirely and create a whole new brand built on a new foundation. Who they should buy (or partner with) is an entirely different issue.