Apple has reached a pivotal moment. When outgoing CEO Tim Cook takes the stage for the keynote at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, it is expected to be his final major public appearance in the role.
His successor, John Ternus — a product person — is already making moves.
This year’s WWDC is poised to be Apple’s second major push to define its artificial intelligence strategy. The company first introduced Apple Intelligence at last year’s conference, but the 2024 rollout fell short of expectations. Wall Street had anticipated a strong iPhone upgrade cycle; instead, the AI features have underwhelmed consumers, and the launch of the long-awaited AI-powered Siri has been pushed back to this fall.
Apple’s AI do-over starts Monday.
Angela Palumbo for Barron’s:
“Now, it’s take two. Apple is expected to show off a revamped Siri during the keynote on Monday, along with some other AI updates. UBS analyst David Vogt expects Apple to present an AI-powered Siri that will be able to understand personal data and analyze on-screen content. He also expects Apple to launch an independent Siri app that functions similarly to other AI apps by acting as an “interface for text, voice, and attachments.”
After getting punished on its AI failures, Apple stock is rallying again. Investors are offering Apple a rare second chance to get AI right.
“I think this would be a great opportunity to just show that personalized Siri is the killer consumer agent,” John Belton, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, tells me. “Maybe personalized Siri is something that can really bring a lot of this new technology to the billions of iPhone users around the world.”
Even if the company nails the presentation, don’t expect Apple to get a near-term boost. Over the past decades, shares have declined slightly on the day of the WWDC keynote, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Three months later, they’re up an average of nearly 14%.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple stands at a genuine inflection point.
When Tim Cook delivers Monday’s WWDC keynote, it will almost certainly mark his final major public act as CEO. The transition to John Ternus — a product-first executive who actually understands hardware and software at a deep level — is already underway, and not a moment too soon.
This year’s WWDC isn’t just another developer conference — it’s Apple’s second chance to prove it can actually deliver on the AI future it started talking about years ago, albeit this time stacked atop Google’s Gemini.
The company has the talent, the cash, and the ecosystem. What it needs now is clear execution and genuine innovation, not more marketing vapor.
The interminable iterative Cook era is ending. The Ternus era is beginning. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
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