'Yawner': Apple's keynote event fails to impress investors
12 Jun 2025

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has failed to impress investors this year.

The tech giant's shares fell over 1% on Monday before inching back a bit on Tuesday as the market was disappointed with its AI announcements.

The event, which usually generates excitement with major product launches, was called "a yawner" by one analyst due to the lack of groundbreaking news.

'Incremental at best': Investors react to AI announcements
Fact

The investor reaction to Apple's AI announcements at WWDC 2025 has been lukewarm, with some even calling them "incremental at best." This comes as a stark contrast to the usual excitement and anticipation that surrounds Apple's annual developer showcase, known for its big product reveals.

What Apple announced at WWDC
Product updates

This year, Apple focused on unveiling "Liquid Glass," a new design language that makes its operating systems look more glass-like.

The reaction to this announcement was mixed, with some praising it and others criticizing it as a "bad" copy of the Windows Vista aesthetics.

However, amid the surface-level disappointment, Apple also announced the Foundation Models framework, which gives third-party developers direct access to on-device large language models powering Apple Intelligence with just three lines of code.

Foundation Models framework
Strategic shift

The Foundation Models framework is a major departure for Apple, which has always kept its core technologies under wraps.

The new system lets developers create AI features that run entirely offline, preserving user privacy while avoiding the cloud API costs that can be prohibitive for smaller developers.

This includes examples like Kahoot creating personalized study questions from user notes and AllTrails suggesting routes based on natural language descriptions, without an internet connection.

AI credibility marred by over-promising
AI challenges

Apple's AI credibility has been marred by over-promising and under-delivering on Apple Intelligence.

The company delayed its promised "more personal" Siri features in March and gave no update on timing during its keynote.

However, the Foundation Models framework could be more important than flashier announcements if developers can build something compelling enough with Apple's tools to keep the company in the AI race.