The capitalization of the company still oscillates around $ 3 trillion, but from the beginning of 2025 its shares fell by almost 16 percent. This makes Apple the weakest link in the Big Techów sector. Investors began to wonder Is the current strategy enough to restore the status of an innovator in a new technological cycle, dominated by artificial intelligence.
Siri is the crowning of frustration. In June, Craig Federighi, Vice President and Member of the Management Board of Apple, admitted that the rebuilt voice assistant needs more time to achieve “our bar of quality” and will only go to users in the spring of 2026. In practice, this means this means A two -year delay relative to the original schedule And the lack of spectacular new products at WWDC 2025, which was emphasized by industry media reporting the conference.
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Apple tries, but that's not enough
Apple introduced the Apple Intelligence package in 2024, i.e. functions summarizing notifications, transcribing conversations or removing objects from photos, but for many observers there were This is a brave chase after competition rather than a breakthrough.
Why is the giant that revolutionized the phone sector cannot give the tone to the LLM race? The company's culture has been focusing on equipment and maximum data processing on the device for decades. This approach limits the size of models that can be launched locally. In addition, since spring, Apple has been reorganizing the AI Division. The secret team of robotics was removed from under the guardianship of John Giannandrei, and today Mike Rockwell, who has been associated with Vision Pro, is responsible today. Some engineers call the “ugly” situation, and Internal friction slows down.
Critics spare no words. “Cook is a supply chain man, and they need a technology visionary. The problem is deeper than it seems,” says Ted Mortonson from Baird. Ben Bajarin from Creative Strategies adds that Apart from Siri Apple, “little can show much” in the AI segment.
A management perspective also appears in the debate. William Klepper from Columbia Business School reminds that the decade is a natural border for the presidents of large corporations, because usually then the second horizon requires a fresh leader. Sandra Sucher from Harvard Business School emphasizes that Directors' councils exchange CEO due to a scandal, crisis or loss of trust – and that for now none of these conditions formally concerns cookalthough external pressure is growing.
Meanwhile, the largest staff rotation has been in the Apple itself. After 30 years, COO Jeff Williams leaves and his duties are taken over by Sabih Khan. A year earlier, a planned succession was announced in the finance division – Luca Maestri gave way to Kevan Parek. These changes reveal the lack of the obvious successor of Cook and strengthen the impression that the company is standing at the crossroads.
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Regulations and geopolitics do not help
Geopolitics and regulations come to technological problems. In May, Donald Trump threatened a 25 % duties on iPhones produced outside the USA, which immediately reduced the company's value by several dozen billion dollars.
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In Europe, Apple implements subsequent concessions to avoid penalties of up to EUR 50 million per day, imposed as part of Digital Markets Act, and in the States, the Federal Court allowed the antitrust process against the “snake in the garden” IOS. This is a metaphor taken from a lawsuit that says that the closed Apple ecosystem (the company used to call it a “fenced safe garden”), i.e. iOS, has become a problem, because its restrictions and contract barriers, Instead of protecting users, they are harmful to competition and consumers today.
A acquisition could be one of the less risky medicines. Bloomberg revealed that Apple is considering taking over Perplexity AI, and Melius Research analysts go further, even suggesting the partnership with Xai Elona Muska, which would allow the company to reach for a large language network. Such an operation, however, would mean leaving the existing comfort zone and potential voltages around $ 20 billion. Annually a deal with Google for the default search engine.
What scenarios are drawn before Tim Cook? The Supervisory Board is still standing behind the president, and the company's bosses indicate the advantage of Apple Silicon – systems capable of performance 38 TOPS on the device. However, if the spring premiere of the new Siri does not meet the expectations, calls for new leadership can transform from media speculation into real pressure of shareholders. Only then will it turn out whether the Cook era will sign up in the history of Apple as a bridge until the next decade of success, or as a moment when the company had a breakthrough technological wave for the first time.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, Business Insider Polska journalist
