Tim Cook's final WWDC as CEO opened in Cupertino today, with John Ternus confirmed as his successor. This is the second consecutive WWDC to lead with AI promises for Siri and iOS, and Apple is arriving with scaled-down ambitions relative to the industry arms race happening around it.
The iPhone remains Apple's gravitational center, and that dominance is both the company's strength and its strategic constraint. Apple Intelligence has yet to deliver the step-change Siri overhaul that was promised at WWDC 2024, and the question the original piece puts directly is whether Apple is managing expectations or genuinely falling behind Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft on the AI layer that will define the next platform era.
The full piece is worth reading for its breakdown of what Apple actually announced versus what it deferred, and what Ternus inherits when he takes the top job. The transition of power and the AI execution gap are not separate stories. They are the same story.
[READ ORIGINAL →]