Condia Insider: What’s Apple revealing at WWDC 2025?

🍔 Quick Bite: Apple’s recent years have seen big announcements like the Vision Pro headset and a major AI push, but both have faced setbacks. With WWDC 2025 coming up, expectations are mixed

🧠 The Breakdown

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is happening today, and unlike in years past, the energy feels off.

At WWDC 2023, the Vision Pro made its debut. In 2024, there was buzz around Apple Intelligence, with promises of a smarter Siri and meaningful AI tools across its ecosystem.

But in 2025, we’re getting something different: a shiny redesign of iOS, a potential name change (iOS 26 instead of iOS 19), and small AI-powered features sprinkled across its software. 

The problem? None of it feels like it moves the needle.

Three years of misses?

Let’s start with the recent track record.

In 2023, the Vision Pro was meant to usher in Apple’s next big category. But a year and a half later, the headset is struggling to find footing. Sales have reportedly been slow, and Apple has cut production targets.

Then came 2024, and with it the announcement of Apple Intelligence, the company’s long-awaited AI strategy. Siri was supposed to get smarter, system-wide features like summarisation and smart replies were teased, and new tools like Genmoji and Image Playground were pitched as fun, everyday uses of generative AI.

But most of those features either launched in half-baked form or didn’t launch at all.

There have also been court troubles. Apple recently lost a major legal battle in the US, where a judge blocked it from charging fees on external in-app purchases. The EU is also on its neck for antitrust violations.

And Apple’s response? So far, silence. Tim Cook hasn’t publicly addressed the situation, and the company declined to send execs to Daring Fireball’s Talk Show for the first time since 2015.

What’s left to get excited about at WWDC 2025?

Apple still knows how to put on a show, and this year’s conference will come with the usual stagecraft.

Here’s what we’re expecting:

• A major iOS redesign. The first since iOS 7, the update will reportedly mirror the design language of VisionOS, with more transparent UI layers, circular icons, and depth effects. The goal is to create a more unified feel across iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro, and even CarPlay.
  
• AI-powered tweaks. Expect a handful of generative AI features that touch up everyday apps. Smarter suggestions in Messages, email summarisation in Mail, AI-generated workout plans in Fitness, and possibly live voicemail summaries. Some of these might land now, some later in the year.
  
• Hardware-adjacent updates. There’s talk of spatial controllers coming to the Vision Pro and new features for AirPods, such as live translation and sleep detection. On the software side, we may see a new standalone gaming app to replace Game Center, as well as updates to the Shortcuts app to better integrate with AI tools.

Is Apple playing catch-up?

Apple’s far from out of the game. It still runs one of the most powerful hardware-software ecosystems in the world. But this year’s WWDC feels like a turning point. The AI wave has reset expectations across the industry, and Apple, usually one of the ones setting the tone, seems to be playing catch-up. 

That said, perhaps this is the moment it begins to reveal what it has been building behind the scenes. Apple remains Apple; its devices dominate, its OS still feels premium, and brand loyalty is unmatched. But the signs of slippage are starting to show, however quietly.

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