An analyst suggests that Apple's CEO should handle the Siri delay in a manner similar to Steve Jobs.

      Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, should make a public statement regarding the delay in rolling out advanced Siri features across its ecosystem, instead of Apple discreetly announcing the information through a tech website last week, as stated by noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

      At the WWDC event in 2024, the company introduced an AI-enhanced Siri as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative. Although the virtual assistant possesses some AI capabilities now, the more sophisticated features—like personalized responses, multi-app task completion, and on-screen awareness—will not be available until next year, at the earliest.

      In a post on X on Thursday, Kuo recognized that creating excellent AI services "was never going to happen overnight," making the delay of Apple Intelligence quite understandable. He also pointed out that there were reasons for Apple to announce Apple Intelligence at last year's WWDC, "even though they knew it couldn’t be completed on schedule," acknowledging that while it "was not a good move, [it] is still understandable given the pressure from the board and shareholders."

      However, Kuo expressed dissatisfaction with how Apple handled the situation recently when it became apparent that the development of Apple Intelligence (Siri) was not on track, with the company opting to share that news through an unofficial channel. He remarked, "This is how the world’s most valuable company manages a PR crisis."

      Kuo suggested that Apple should have taken a page from Steve Jobs' playbook, who dealt with the "antennagate" crisis regarding the iPhone 4 in 2010, where a design flaw led to significant customer dissatisfaction. Jobs addressed the issue directly by holding a press conference to acknowledge the problem and offered free bumper cases to alleviate the situation.

      Kuo commented, “The way Steve Jobs personally addressed the iPhone 4 antennagate PR crisis back in the day provides a great example.”

      However, Cook has also faced challenging situations publicly, as seen with the Apple Maps issue in 2012, where the software was launched prematurely, leading to widespread frustration among users. Instead of a press conference, Cook chose to publish an apology on Apple’s website, admitting that the company “fell short” of its commitment to deliver superior products, while assuring improvements would be made.

      The significant difference between these past issues—antennagate and Apple Maps—and the delay in AI Siri is that there is currently no user outrage or immediate crisis related to the situation. Naturally, if Apple were to launch the new Siri without being ready and it performed poorly, Cook might feel obligated to address it publicly.

      For the moment, Apple is focused on preventing a repeat of the Apple Maps error, planning to release the updated Siri only when it is fully prepared. Thus, do not anticipate Cook to convene a press conference on the matter anytime soon.