"Countdown to WWDC: Anticipation Builds for Apple's Developer Conference"

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2025 logo (Source: Company website)

Apple's big event, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), is happening tomorrow, Monday. It's that time of year when they usually share all the new stuff coming to their software and this year people are paying extra attention.

Developers will gather at Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. Tim Cook and other big names from the company will kick things off with their classic keynote speech.

WWDC is known for unveiling cool products, like the "Apple Vision Pro" headset, and giving us a peek at what's next for iPhone's software, "iOS."

But this time, Apple’s got a few tough hurdles to jump over: trade tariffs related to China, some holdups with their "Apple Intelligence" AI features, and some serious questions about where their devices are headed, according to a report from Business Insider that Al Arabiya Business checked out.

Even with these challenges, analyst Debanjan Chatterjee from Forrester Research doesn’t expect any big surprises at the conference. He told Business Insider that the announcements will probably be mostly on the quieter side, unless they surprise everyone with a fresh design change for user experience.

Back in 2024, Cook and his team came up with the idea of "Apple Intelligence," which is basically Apple's plan for artificial intelligence. They even built an iPhone with this in mind. But almost a year later, those AI features didn’t really get users excited enough to upgrade their iPhones.

Apple has also pushed back its promise to roll out a smarter version of Siri, which they showed off last year. In April, they admitted it’s going to take “longer than we thought” to get it right.

Gadjo Savilla, an analyst at eMarketer, said that Monday presents a key opportunity for Apple to answer burning questions about AI, like what’s next for "Apple Intelligence."

He noted that Apple’s move towards AI has been pretty rocky, and they’ve struggled to show off what they can really do in this area.

As for how Apple’s been doing lately, the start of 2025 hasn’t been a walk in the park. They’ve had legal issues with their app store, surprise tariff announcements messing with their supply chain, and ongoing struggles in China, which is a huge market for iPhone sales and manufacturing.

During a call with investors back in May, Cook warned that they’d be looking at around $900 million in tariff costs for the quarter ending in June.

On May 23, former President Donald Trump said that iPhones made outside the U.S. would face tariffs of at least 25%. Analysts have pointed out that moving iPhone production from places like India and China to the U.S. could take up to a decade, and may lead to a spike in iPhone prices.

Chatterjee mentioned these tariff changes could have “serious consequences” for the company.

Plus, Apple recently hit a snag in its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games, where a ruling said they can’t charge a hefty 27% fee to developers in the U.S. who send users outside the app store for purchases.

WWDC is all about developers, so this could be a chance for Apple to build better relationships with them.

Savilla noted that this is a moment for Apple to mend fences with developers who feel they’re stuck in a pretty restrictive ecosystem and are unhappy with high fees.

On the flip side, the AI company "OpenAI," which partnered with Apple last year to bring ChatGPT into Siri, has snagged Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief designer, to work on wearable AI gadgets. Ive is known for his close work with Steve Jobs on some of Apple’s iconic products back before he left in 2019.

Apple’s been falling behind in the AI race, and with Ogden now at OpenAI, analysts are worried about Apple losing its edge in innovation.

Savilla mentioned that this raises the stakes for Apple, as they might have some fierce competition in the AI space—especially since the buzz is that the "next big thing" could be coming from outside of Apple, driven by its former star designer.

But Apple still has an edge in the AI landscape thanks to its vast distribution system for its operating systems. At the end of the day, the iPhone is still the most popular smartphone worldwide.