Apple Offers Little To Get Excited About At WWDC

The reviews are in for Apple's (AAPL) WWDC 2025 keynote presentation and they aren't good. Analysts called it "a dud," "a yawner," "disappointing" and more. And the news didn't help Apple stock.

The primary focus of the opener for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday was a new user interface for its operating systems. The slick new design has a translucent "Liquid Glass" aesthetic for layering controls over apps and showing more of what's underneath.

↑ X NOW PLAYING Apple Stock's Long-Term Move And Avoiding All-Or-Nothing Trades

But the much ballyhooed redesign amounts to a fresh coat of paint for a lineup of mature hardware products.

Apple also showed off some incremental advancements using artificial intelligence. But it offered none of the agentic AI functions that can work across apps that it previewed at last year's WWDC. Plus, its AI-powered Siri digital assistant is still in development.

"We're continuing our work to deliver the features that will make Siri even more personal," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said during the prerecorded keynote. "This work needed more time to reach our high quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year."

On Monday, Apple stock dropped 1.2% to close at 201.51.

In morning trades on the stock market today, Apple stock rose a fraction to 201.85.

Apple Stock Analysts Unimpressed

CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino labeled the WWDC keynote "a dud," especially when compared with other recent software developers conferences, such as Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google I/O.

"Investors will need to be patient over the next six to nine months as the lack of AI innovation and other concerns linger," Zino said in a client note. Still, he reiterated his buy rating on Apple stock.

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said Apple's canned keynote was "a yawner." But he kept his outperform rating on Apple stock amid the company's "slow but steady improvements" to its AI offerings.

Apple "may be forced into doing some bigger AI acquisitions to jump-start this AI strategy," Ives said in a client note.

Needham analyst Laura Martin said Apple's WWDC keynote was "disappointing" with "no surprises." She rates Apple stock as hold.

"In fairness, there are many blogs dedicated to writing about what Apple will launch next week/month/year, so it is difficult for Apple to surprise Wall Street," she said in a client note. "Yesterday's WWDC keynote was evidence of this."

'Evolutionary' Updates Provided

UBS analyst David Vogt maintained his neutral rating on Apple stock after the event.

The WWDC announcements were "more evolutionary than revolutionary," Vogt said in a client note. "The updates were in line with our more modest expectations."

Barclays analyst Tim Long said he was "slightly disappointed with the content and features announced" at WWDC. "The AI features are underwhelming."

"We view changes to all device operating systems and Apple Intelligence as incremental, and not enough to drive any upgrade cycles," Long said in a report. He reiterated his underweight rating on Apple stock.

New Apple Intelligence features include Live Translation for users to communicate with others in different languages. Apple also provided updates to "visual intelligence" to use your device camera or screenshots to get more information about businesses, places and things.

However, the new AI features aren't compelling enough to spur iPhone upgrades, Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes said in a report.

The news won't "change the narrative" for Apple stock, which has been in a slump amid soft iPhone sales, tariff concerns and services challenges, he said. Still, Reitzes rates Apple stock as buy.

Has Makings Of AI Winner

Other analysts were more charitable in their assessments of Apple's WWDC keynote.

Despite the event being "underwhelming vs. prior years," it affirms Apple's privacy-centric take on AI, BofA analyst Wamsi Mohan said in a client note. That approach is "important to the Apple ecosystem users and could prove smart," he said. Mohan rates Apple stock as buy.

Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring said Apple "clearly still has the ingredients to make it an AI winner." He kept his overweight rating on Apple stock.

Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Apple iPhone Purchase Intent Falls To 5-Year Low

Nvidia Scores U.K. Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Deals

Get Full Access To IBD Stock Lists And Ratings

Find Winning Stocks With MarketSurge Pattern Recognition & Custom Screens

Join IBD Live For Stock Ideas Each Morning Before The Open