The news: In 2025, Apple doubled down on AI while refocusing on device, ecosystem, and design differentiation, seeking to stay ahead in a maturing smartphone market and a global regulatory maze.

After a disappointing AI rollout in 2024, Apple pulled back on AI talk to reassert its edge in smartphones, focusing on design, software, cameras, and form factors to counter Samsung and Google offerings. 

Apple’s biggest developments in 2025:

• iPhone Air: Apple’s hardware lead was bolstered by the launch of the iPhone Air—its slimmest iPhone ever, marking the first major iPhone redesign in years.
• Liquid Glass: It made headlines for its software design, called Liquid Glass, across iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS, modernizing device UIs and rebranding its operating systems with year-based naming (e.g., iOS 26), signaling a new era of simplicity.
• M5 chips: The company’s annual product pipeline was busier than ever, introducing M5 chip MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models, with incremental but notable performance boosts, while teasing larger product launches for early 2026.
• Apple Intelligence: Its AI became more deeply woven across its platforms, enhancing experiences like Live Translation, Visual Intelligence, and multimodal Genmoji creation.
• Apple TV: Its streaming service continued to scale new heights, with Apple Original Films’ “F1: The Movie” debuting in December and further cementing Apple’s status in the streaming wars.

The challenge: Unfounded rumors of CEO Tim Cook’s retirement, the departures of COO Jeff Williams, CFO Luca Maestri, and AI chief John Giannandrea—and Meta poaching head of UI design Alan Dye—point to upheaval and change. 

The company will likely restructure leadership around its key products and services, but doing so as competition intensifies around AI and smartphones could be challenging, especially since Meta and OpenAI have been relentless in pursuing Apple’s top talent.

Looking ahead: In 2026, Apple is poised to deliver one of its most ambitious years yet, with major hardware innovation alongside continued AI evolution.

• We forecast that Siri will overtake Google Assistant (now called Gemini) in number of US users in 2026, presenting a rare opportunity to seize the AI and voice assistant market for the first time in a decade.
• The company is rumored to launch its first foldable iPhone, aiming for a crease-free design, a move that could redefine the premium smartphone experience and set a new premium pricing ceiling.

The question facing Apple will be whether these bold form factor changes and deeper AI experiences can overcome slowing device cycles, fierce competition, tariff backlash, and brewing antitrust probes, making 2026 a pivotal year for both its brand and the technology industry.