Last year at WWDC, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence to the world. In the weeks that followed, Apple’s share price soared, with the understanding that Apple was finally going all in on AI. Now, more than a year later, many of the AI features Apple promised would ship soon are still nowhere to be found. In turn, Google decided to have a bit of fun at Apple’s expense with its new ad for the Pixel 10.
The ad begins by showing the smooth contours of the Pixel 10. Then a narrator chimes in and says: “If you buy a new phone because of a feature that’s coming soon… but it’s been coming soon for a full year… you could change your definition of soon. Or you could just change your phone.”
The ad doesn’t explicitly mention Apple, but there’s no confusion about what the target is. The mockery is all in good fun, and if we’re being honest, is well-deserved. Several of the Apple Intelligence features Apple boasted about, such as personalized Siri features, will reportedly ship a little less than 2 years later than planned. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s historically not how Apple tends to operate.
Apple used to be the one making jokes
Back when Apple was something of a scrappy underdog living in the shadow of Microsoft’s dominance, the company would routinely poke fun at Microsoft’s penchant for copying features originally introduced in OS X. Apple took pride in the fact that it only introduced features and products that actually shipped. At the time, this stood in stark contrast to Microsoft and other tech companies, which would routinely announce ambitious new features that never saw the light of day.
Well, the shoe is now on the other foot. Apple in recent years has made an unfortunate habit of announcing products and features on timelines that are far too optimistic. Sometimes, Apple ships them later than planned. Sometimes, it doesn’t ship them at all. As a prime example, you might recall the AirPower saga. As a quick refresher, AirPower was a wireless charging mat that, in theory, would be able to simultaneously charge multiple Apple devices. Apple announced AirPower at its 2017 iPhone event as “coming soon.” Ultimately, the project was delayed by several technical hurdles Apple couldn’t solve. Specifically, the charging mat was prone to overheating and was never able to satisfy Apple’s standard for quality. Apple, as a result, ended up cancelling the product altogether in March of 2019.
“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project,” Apple senior VP of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio said at the time. “We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.”
It was a rare misstep for Apple, but it didn’t quite taint the company, because it was an exception to the rule. The opposite appears to be the case now, as product and feature delays have seemingly become much more common in recent years.
