Apple’s annual WWDC is usually the stage for bold visions and game-changing features. This year, WWDC25 delivered iOS 26 a sleek new coat of paint, incremental tweaks, and a few neat convenience features. But beneath the glass-like sheen, the core feels unchanged. Critics are asking whether Apple’s cautious, tweak-around-the-edges approach marks the start of a slide reminiscent of Nokia’s fall from mobile phone royalty.
With over 2.35 billion active devices in the wild, Apple’s reach is unmatched. Yet, market leadership is never permanent. As Nokia’s Symbian empire crumbled under the weight of touchscreen upstarts, Apple now faces a test: innovate boldly, or risk becoming a footnote in tech history.
From Unshakeable To Unraveling
In the early 2000s, Nokia seemed untouchable. Its brand was synonymous with reliability. Feature phones powered by Symbian held over 50 per cent of the global market. Yet once touchscreen smartphones soared, led by the iPhone, Nokia faltered. By 2012, its global share had plunged to single digits, and in 2014, it sold its handset division.
Apple today commands a premium segment few can match. iPhones generate most of their revenue, and services like the App Store and iCloud bolster margins. Still, signs of tension are visible. Growth in key markets like China has slipped. Investors now watch closely for genuine breakthroughs rather than cosmetic facelifts. Just as Nokia once underestimated the need to reinvent its software core, Apple risks relying too heavily on past glories.
Promise Vs Performance
At WWDC24, Apple trumpeted “Apple Intelligence” and a “smarter Siri” that would run on-device, preserving user privacy. Twelve months on, Siri remains glitchy. It struggles with multi-step tasks and still fails to match competitors in natural conversation. “We’re still seeing too many dead ends,” says one developer.
Contrast that with Google’s Gemini, now integrated into Pixel phones or Microsoft’s Copilot blend of ChatGPT in Windows and Office. These rivals tap massive cloud models, delivering richer responses. Apple’s insistence on tiny, on-device AI models limits capability.
To compensate, it quietly offers an opt-in to ChatGPT for some Siri queries, an implicit admission that its own AI isn’t yet up to the task. If Apple wants to avoid a Nokia-style decline, it must decide whether to loosen its privacy guard or accept being left behind in the AI arms race.
The Software Question Mark
Apple’s halo has always been its seamless hardware-software integration, but iOS 26’s “Liquid Glass” UI and improved CarPlay feel like paint rather than foundation. Call Screening and Hold Assist add convenience, but they’re catch-up features, not industry-redefining leaps.
Nokia’s software woes were more blatant: a clunky, developer-unfriendly Symbian that couldn’t match the richness of iOS or Android. Its delayed switch to Windows Phone alienated both users and app makers. By the time Nokia tried to catch up, it was too late.
Apple must avoid a similar trap. Developers need fresh APIs powered by robust AI and cloud sync. Without a compelling software narrative, the loyalty that keeps users on iOS may erode, especially as younger consumers weigh alternatives that feel more cutting-edge.
Also Read: Has Apple Stopped Innovating Under Tim Cook’s Leadership?
Hardware Vs Ecosystem
Nokia’s downfall stemmed from a hardware-centric worldview. It believed its brand alone would carry it past any shift. In contrast, Apple has long balanced device innovation with a rich ecosystem of services and developer tools. Its M-series chips set performance benchmarks, and its tightly controlled App Store ensures a consistent experience.
Yet Apple’s AI hardware play remains small-scale. The Vision Pro headset, while revolutionary in ambition, is bulky and priced for niche adopters. Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and rumoured lightweight AR headsets from Chinese rivals feel more consumer-ready.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s $6.4 billion deal to build AI hardware with Jony Ive points to a convergence of design and AI that could leave Apple watching from the sidelines. To maintain its edge, Apple must leverage both its silicon prowess and its ecosystem to deliver truly new experiences, not just refined versions of old ones.
Privacy As Strength And Constraint
Apple’s privacy stance is a key differentiator. It’s a “differential privacy” approach that pools anonymized insights, rather than harvesting individual data. This protects users but limits the depth of personalisation AI can offer. Google and Meta freely mine user behaviour to train massive models, while Apple’s data diet remains comparatively sparse.
This trade-off shows up in Siri. Without rich, user-specific context, it can’t learn preferences deeply or anticipate needs. Apple has compensated by keeping AI models small and local, but that sacrifices the horsepower needed for truly natural language understanding. The result: a Siri that still feels two steps behind.
If Apple relaxes its privacy constraints, it risks user trust. But if it doesn’t, its AI may never move beyond stuttering steps. Finding the right balance will determine whether Apple can chart a new growth path or repeat Nokia’s story of decline.
Apple sits at a crossroads. Its hardware empire is robust, and its brand unrivalled, yet in software and AI, the momentum has slowed. Nokia once ruled the mobile world until it clung to a fading playbook. Apple’s current strategy tweaks over transformations risks a similar fate.
To avoid that, Apple must embrace bold reinvention: invest in cloud-scale AI, engage developers with powerful new tools, and marry its privacy principles to models that truly learn from users. Only then can Apple write the next chapter of innovation, rather than echoing Nokia’s cautionary tale. The clock is ticking, and the world is watching.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Finshots, Live Mint, Indian Express
Find the blogger: Katyayani Joshi
This post is tagged under: apple decline, nokia comparison, ios 26, apple intelligence, siri vs chatgpt, apple vs google, ai race, tech stagnation, wwdc 2025, apple vs nokia, future of apple, apple ai problems, smartphone innovation, big tech critique, software vs hardware, ai in smartphones, apple innovation crisis, privacy vs performance, tech industry trends, apple vs microsoft, vision pro vs meta, perplexity ai, chatgpt integration, apple siri failure, apple future strategy
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