Apple WWDC 2025: Expectation of next gen OSes, and an imperative AI question

Hindustan Times

18 hours ago

Next week will be ushered in by the annual Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, traditionally a showcase of the company's software vision, developer focus, and in a continued trend for last year, the question about the direction the tech giant intends to take with artificial intelligence (AI). The hardware announcements, though rare, haven't historically been entirely off the agenda — Apple Silicon and Vision Pro being some examples — and that adds an element of intrigue. One question many will ask in the lead-up is, when is the next-generation Siri finally landing? An answer to that, may define how the market reacts, post the keynote. After all, Siri cannot be seen lagging, as Google Gemini, OpenAI's GPT, and Anthropic's Claude models, make substantive forward leaps, periodically.
The big expectation revolves around multiple-layered changes across the OS lines. The iOS for iPhone, iPadOS for the iPad, macOS for the Mac portfolio and watchOS are expected to get significant visual overhaul. The aesthetic changes are likely to be designed to add even greater uniformity across the platforms, with the idea being a switch from the current interface, to something that's closer to what's referred to in design circles as 'glassmorphism'. It is designed to bring a sense of light and space to the interface elements, with the transparency adding a sense of depth.
It will be interesting to see to what extent Apple overhauls its core apps, particularly on iOS — Phone, Messages, Notes, Safari and Camera. Some may get more than a new coat of paint, and our estimate would be a higher degree of changes await Safari and Phone, also to keep up with the ecosystem in general. Could Apple shift to a year-based naming scheme, instead of the current generational numbering? Rumours seem to indicate iOS 26 is on the agenda (signifying the year 2026, though curiously, it'll release later in 2025).
Updates for iPadOS are expected to be significant this time, a means to an end that is to bring the iPad when paired with a Magic Keyboard, closer to a MacBook-esque user experience. Could we see the introduction of Finder for instance, or some of the macOS staples such as the Preview app for PDF handling, on an iPad too. If that were to happen, we'd have the perfect touchscreen MacBook — and it'll be called the iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard. The question is, if it'll mean iPadOS adopts two distinct personalities (and interfaces), where a one similar to the current iPadOS is in use without a keyboard, and a Mac-like interface, when a keyboard is?
AI question: what does Apple have in store?
This is a fork in the road, one that must be navigated carefully, and it'll be intriguing to see which path Apple takes with regard to an inevitable AI question. While expectations would hope for wholesale Apple Intelligence updates, that is very unlikely. Expect Apple to smartly deploy its large language models smartly, by involving developers as well as adding new functionality across devices and software.
That is, instead of trying to compete with the rapid pace of evolving the likes of Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity have shown, in recent months. The last thing Apple would want is for an AI conversation to come across as unimpressive, particularly to the markets. Using AI models to integrate a live translation feature across Phone and third-party apps such as WhatApp and Zoom, and one that also works on the AirPods, could well be on the agenda.
Could Apple open up its foundation models for third-party developers, to build their takes on AI functionality that may complement the pieces of the puzzle Apple already has in place — Writing Tools, AI summaries, and Clean Up, for instance. More to that point, updated and more parameter laden foundation models could be released, with the flexibility of on-device as well as server side processing.
In April this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the monopoly trial clearly said that the company expects to have a deal in place with Apple to build Gemini into Apple Intelligence sometime this year — that would be alongside Apple Intelligence's launch partner, OpenAI's GPT models. If and when this integration happens, Gemini on the basis of its incredibly powerful models (some recent updates have reset certain experiential benchmarks) will give Apple Intelligence a significant upgrade in terms of capabilities across the board — a smarter Siri, camera based features that could replicate Gemini Live, and AI based search in Safari.
Could Apple and Google announce this at the WWDC keynote on Monday night? The looming shadow of Google's antitrust proceedings, and till the US Justice Department pronounces a verdict, may pose a complication. Could this be shelved till the iPhone keynote, expected in September? Google itself stands to lose a little if Samsung (being by far the largest Android phone OEM) reduces reliance on Gemini which itself received significant updates recently, with the Perplexity partnership.
Perplexity, which already has deals in place with Samsung and Motorola to integrate their AI in upcoming phones, could have something to offer Apple as well. It will certainly be more than just a search plug-in, if that partnership has to fructify. Could that mean Perplexity's agentic browser vision intersects with Safari, for instance? Very much a chance of that happening. Case in point, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services saying during the Google antitrust trial that, 'We've been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we've started some discussions with them about what they're doing.'
What are the analysts predicting?
On Friday, analysts at Wedbush maintained a $270.00 price target on Apple Inc., ahead of the WWDC keynote — they hope Apple will be able to take enough steps with the AI proposition, to be able to monetise it, which will weave into the consistently strong services bundle for the tech giant. Morgan Stanley has set a target price of $235 for Apple, noting significant growth in App Store revenue could add as much as $110 million in the June quarter. In the early trading Friday, Apple stocks held at $204.