Apple’s WWDC Was a "Dud." What’s Next for the Stock?

Apple didn’t deliver any major AI announcements at its annual developers conference, but some analysts see other ways for the company to win in AI and drive iPhone sales

Apple did not share an updated timeline for highly anticipated Apple Intelligence features at this year’s WWDC.

Apple Inc.’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday was light on artificial-intelligence innovation, helping to reinforce an issue that has been dogging Apple’s stock lately. But some analysts are staying bullish on shares, saying investors should be patient as the company plays a longer-term AI strategy. 

The company unveiled minor AI updates, including a new Live Translation feature and improved Visual Intelligence, which will let people shop based on products in screenshots. Apple also delivered on expectations that it would open its foundation models to outside developers to make apps and features. But the audience was left with no new timeline on its delayed efforts for an AI-powered version of its Siri voice assistant or other anticipated Apple Intelligence features that were announced at the previous year’s conference. 

Despite calling the event “a dud,” CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said he expects Apple to resolve issues with the Siri integration over the next 12 months.

“We see Siri being the ultimate personal AI assistant on the most valuable consumer ecosystem,” Zino said in a note on Monday. “In our view, monetization potential for AI is still on the table from both the services and hardware side, but we acknowledge that investors will need to be patient over the next six to nine months as the lack of AI innovation and other concerns linger.”

Analysts at UBS said in a Monday note that Apple’s announcements “were in-line with our more modest expectations,” even though some investors were likely looking forward to “a new iPhone form factor or a ‘killer’ Apple Intelligence app” to spark iPhone demand. The analysts said they think consensus estimates for iPhone revenue over the next four quarters “are too optimistic,” and that the event “will have a negligible impact on iPhone sales” in the current and following quarters.

Apple’s AI-related announcements “are modest positives for the company’s AI strategy that has been slow to develop in the past twelve months,” and many of the features are “already available through competitor applications,” UBS said. “With more creators working with Apple Intelligence, we see a higher likelihood of more compelling use cases emerging at some point in the future, but not enough to drive near-term purchase intent,” the analysts said.

One of Apple’s main focuses at the event appeared to be its new “liquid glass” user interface, which Melius Research analysts said in a Monday note “looks very nice but isn’t exactly the kind of stuff that drives the ‘buy orders’ on the trading desk.”

But even the design change may be problematic, according to Oppenheimer’s Martin Yang. He wrote of “significant potential degradation of readability due to the see-through design,” citing “early user feedback.”

Meanwhile, the Melius analysts wrote that WWDC “didn’t have anything groundbreaking that would change the narrative” that Apple is behind in the AI race. The company “still needs to reignite confidence in its services business with new innovations (not toll-taking) and re-accelerate iPhone revenues with new designs.”

A new iPhone series launch in September with an Air version, which Bloomberg says will be a slimmer version of the iPhone, and other “higher-value models” of the smartphone could be the next catalyst for Apple’s stock and “drive category growth,” the analysts said.

They added that new AI partners and services could help Apple assuage near-term concerns about its business. 

“Even an uncharacteristic acquisition in services could be a good idea that puts Apple on the right side of the AI narrative faster,” Melius said. “Something like Perplexity at its latest $14B valuation would still be peanuts for Apple.”

TD Cowen analysts also see longer-term potential for Apple and are looking at the second half of 2026 “for when [Apple] will adopt 2nm chips for a material increase in AI TOPS performance,” referring to the computational power of the chips, which they said could be a catalyst for iPhone sales.