This year has been a year of many challenges for tech giant Apple. Apple Vision Pro product sales that were not as expected, obstacles in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), and financial crises have put the company under pressure. These challenges are forcing Apple to formulate new strategies.
Things became more complicated for Apple in April. The company's stock prices fell sharply on concerns that Apple products could be included in the list of tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. According to a report by Investopedia, this incident caused a loss of more than $700 million in Apple's market value. This financial setback had a serious impact on the company's strategies.
However, Apple received some relief on Friday. Apple products were spared the financial strain after Trump exempted smartphones, laptops, and computers from the tariffs. While the decision provided temporary relief for the company, long-term challenges remain.
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A recent report by the New York Times shed light on internal issues at Apple, particularly the bottlenecks in AI development. In 2023, Apple’s AI head John Giannandrea had sought to procure a large number of GPUs to improve AI capabilities. However, the problem was that most of the 50,000 GPUs in the company’s data centers were more than five years old.
While Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed to double the chip budget for AI, Finance Chief Luca Maestri cut that budget in half. The decision created a computing power constraint for the AI team. In addition, the chips Apple purchased were sourced from Google rather than from leading companies like Nvidia, further delaying AI development.
When Apple announced the new AI features last year alongside the iPhone 16, they were a hit with consumers. However, the company has been criticized for delays in releasing these features. In particular, the plan to transform the Siri assistant into an AI-powered smart version was canceled last month, while it was supposed to be released in the spring.
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In the wake of these failures, Apple has made changes in leadership. Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell has been appointed to take over the reins of Siri upgrades. Reports suggest that the new Siri will debut this fall, during the iPhone 17 launch. The changes signal a new direction for Apple’s AI strategy.
The company will showcase its next innovations at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9. Along with the MacOS, WatchOS, and iOS 19 innovations, the event is expected to showcase Apple’s intelligence capabilities in more detail. The conference will play a key role in setting Apple’s future strategies.
Overall, the challenges Apple has faced this year are forcing the company to think in a new direction. Apple hopes to strengthen its position by accelerating its AI development, making leadership changes, and working towards financial stability. Whether the company can achieve its goals by the end of this year is something the tech industry is eagerly awaiting.