Apple execs respond to disappointed fans following launch of iOS 26 and Siri delays
Apple's long awaited Siri relaunch is still an undetermined distance away despite plans for it to be launched with the iPhone 16 last year, and some of the company's biggest execs have finally responded to the widespread feeling of disappointment from fans.
AI has been the primary focus for Apple in the past year as the company has been slowly integrating what its calling 'Apple Intelligence' into the iPhone, iPad, and Macbook lineups.
While it hasn't exactly gone to plan with a number of unfortunate mishaps, new enhancements added in the upcoming iOS 26 update continue to implement the software across everything you do on an Apple device.
By far the biggest misstep for many users though is the AI powered Siri overhaul that left CEO Tim Cook amazed, as it remains on the back burner with no sign of it being ready to release any time soon.
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Apple executives Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak - who have over 60 years combined at the company - sat down with the Wall Street Journal to discuss their AI plans and the infamous Siri delay, outlining why it still hasn't been released.
"We had a two phase plan, two version of an architecture to deliver a great Siri," explained Federighi, "and as we got into the conference, we had V1 working to do basic capabilities that we showed off at the conference. So we had some real software we were able to demonstrate there and show what was coming, but it didn't converge in the way, quality-wise, that we needed it to.
"We had something working, but then as you got off the beaten path, and we know with Siri, it's open-ended what you might ask it to do and the data that might be on your device that would be used in personal knowledge, and we wanted it to be really, really, reliable, and we weren't able to achieve the reliability in the time we thought."
That aligns with much of how Apple has approached product releases across its entire history really, in that they aren't afraid to delay something or let competitors get ahead initially if it means that they release a product that is truly ready and that they're happy with - Joswiak even says as much later on in the interview.
What seems to have frustrated many though is the perception that Apple showed off something that was simply a demonstration or incomplete product, and both executives make it clear that wasn't the case with the original new Siri presentation.
"We were filming real working software with a real large language model with real semantic search," Federighi asserts, with Joswiak adding that it was something they genuinely though would be ready to ship later that year before encountering unforeseen issues.
"Look, we don't want to disappoint customers, we never do" Joswiak illustrated, "but it would've been more disappointing to ship something that didn't hit our quality standard, that had an error rate that we felt was unacceptable. So we made what we thought was the best decision. I'd made it again."
Anyone looking for any further clarification about a launch date will still be disappointed though, as both push back against setting any further expectations considering the issues that Siri has had so far.
"Well, I mean look, on the one hand I would love to dish about my enthusiasm for our future plans, but that's exactly what we don't want to do right now, to miss expectations," Federighi lays out. "We want to deliver something great that you and all of our customers really appreciate."