APPLE'S WWDC OF ATONEMENT

Apple’s WWDC 2025 was less about disruptive launches and more about rebuilding trust. As it delays its most anticipated AI feature, the company seeks redemption with design, developer tools, and strategic partnerships

- Sahil Mohan Gupta

THE MORNING HAD begun under a damp grey veil, but by nine, the clouds had burned off, leaving Cupertino bathed in cinematic sunlight. On the immaculate lawn of Apple Park, developers, analysts, and creators queued up for flat whites and still-warm kouign-amanns while an indie-house playlist drifted from hidden speakers. The talk was bullish, yet tinged with a palpable undercurrent of impatience. A year ago, on this very stage, Apple had promised a revolution. It had unveiled ‘Apple Intelligence’ and a completely reborn, personalised Siri that would redefine human-computer interaction.

That revolution never arrived.

The buoyant mood was momentarily punctured when a man claiming to be an Apple employee interrupted the event. After revealing a keffiyeh, he was swiftly and silently escorted away by security, a brief hitch in the meticulously crafted corporate shindig. The disruption, however, was brief. Minutes later, a short film answered the larger question at 180 mph: Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi drifted an APXGP Formula 1 car around the ring-shaped roof, coached by a dead-pan Apple CEO Tim Cook. The teaser plugged Apple’s $300 million Brad Pitt racing epic F1, but it also served as a thunderous metaphor. A year after a botched pit stop, Apple was trying to prove it could still handle the curves.

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