A mountain of challenges awaits Apple.

Apple, a name that has long been the envy of its Silicon Valley peers, is now facing one of its most challenging periods since the post-Steve Jobs era.

The race to catch up with rivals in artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly elusive, as regulators scrutinize Apple's business model globally. Demand for iPhones—Apple's biggest source of revenue—also remains sluggish, particularly in China.

Furthermore, the search for "the next big thing" is also proving fruitless. Apple has canceled a long-awaited electric vehicle project, alongside a slow-moving effort to advance smart home technology.

Falling behind in AI, stuck in the search for "the next big thing".

At WWDC 2025, Apple officially confirmed that the new version of Siri, deeply integrated with Apple Intelligence, will not be released this year. Instead, the feature may be released in 2026.

Although Apple spent most of the event showcasing upgrades to Apple Intelligence and iOS 26, the Siri virtual assistant was only briefly mentioned. Many wondered about the actual state of Siri after Apple promised a major upgrade last year.

Since OpenAI's ChatGPT exploded in public awareness in 2022, tech companies have been racing to add more features using generative artificial intelligence, a technology that can generate complex text, images, and videos based on simple prompts.

Meanwhile, Apple, a company renowned for its technological pioneering spirit, is unfortunately "absent" from the AI race.

At WWDC 2024, Apple confidently showcased its new AI innovations. However, upgrades to the Siri virtual assistant were almost completely unmentioned at this year's event. Photo: Apple.

At WWDC 2024, the iPhone manufacturer confidently showcased Siri with a new interface, boasting the ability to remember conversations and perform complex tasks. However, according to Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, version V1 still has many limitations after months of testing and is not yet ready for market release.

Investors welcomed the news after Bloomberg reported in February 2024 that Apple was halting its electric vehicle project. This meant Apple would no longer have to spend billions of dollars on an effort deemed to have a low chance of success.

However, the end of this project also leaves Apple without a significant source of revenue in the near future. Regardless of how difficult it is to build an electric car, the iPhone manufacturer could have priced the product at around $100,000 .

Despite the potentially low profit margins, this is still a necessary factor given Apple's need for a sales boost.

More importantly, abandoning the electric vehicle project also raises concerns that the iPhone maker is now staying in its "comfort zone," instead of boldly exploring new areas.

In fact, the electric car isn't the only project Apple has recently canceled. The tech giant previously halted its internal efforts to develop its own smartwatch display, in addition to canceling the Apple Watch project with a built-in camera.

A giant crack in the "closed garden"

Since its launch in 2008, the App Store has operated virtually identically across 175 countries, including the 30% commission charged to developers on each app transaction.

In 2021, CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the App Store as an " economic miracle," generating over $1 trillion in revenue, creating more than 7 million jobs, and contributing billions of dollars in profits to Apple annually.

In Apple's most recent fiscal year, revenue from those services was nearly $100 billion , accounting for approximately 25% of the company's total revenue.

However, that monopoly may soon end this year, at least in the US. Specifically, after a five-year absence, Fortnite officially returned to the App Store on May 21st, ending the ban and the five-year legal battle between Apple and publisher Epic Games.

Fortnite officially returned to the App Store on May 21st, marking Apple's concession regarding the App Store's payment structure. Photo: Bloomberg.

According to Reuters , Apple's decision to allow the game back on its app store was largely influenced by a federal judge's conclusion that the company violated a previous antitrust ruling related to payment restrictions on the App Store.

In the 2021 lawsuit, Judge Rogers largely ruled in favor of Apple, but ordered the company to allow developers to offer payment options outside of the App Store.

While this change is small, Apple estimates that allowing developers to partner with external providers to offer alternative payment methods on the App Store could cost the company billions of dollars.

To compete with third-party payment processing servers on the web, Apple may need to adjust its commission structure to retain developers. However, this change would almost certainly reduce App Store revenue.

Source: https://znews.vn/ca-nui-thu-thach-cho-don-apple-post1560791.html