Apple Quietly Tweaks Its Marketing in Wake of Apple Intelligence Delays
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Apple has made a subtle change to its product marketing materials for the iPhone 16 lineup and other products following the controversial delay of some of its promised Apple Intelligence features.
Previously, Apple’s marketing campaign for its iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices was centered around the “Hello, Apple Intelligence” tagline. However, the Cupertino company has now changed the ad tagline to “Built for Apple Intelligence,” which is often printed in a smaller font.
Apple appears to be making a quiet effort to divert attention from the not-ready-for-prime-time features that it had promised would come to Apple Intelligence in iOS 18, reports MacRumors.
Ad copy for the iPad and Mac has also had its tagline changed from “Hello, Apple Intelligence” to “Built for Apple Intelligence.” Meanwhile, some people report seeing iPhone 16 marketing materials, such as billboards, without any references to Apple Intelligence.
Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence during its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote address in June, promising a suite of new AI features that would arrive for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia updates. That means all the new features should have been rolled out before this June’s WWDC 2025 event.
While many of those did arrive as promised in iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, one of the most significant enhancements, a more personalized Siri, remained missing in action. The features had previously been expected to debut in iOS 18.4. However, last month, while that update was still in beta, Apple announced that it needed more time to get the features ready for users, and would be rolling out the delayed new features at some point “in the coming year.”
The Siri improvements are now expected to debut sometime in the iOS 19 release cycle. iOS 19 will be unveiled in June during the WWDC 2025 keynote. However, while some parts could arrive early, many observers believe we won’t see the full set of promised Siri features debut until sometime in 2026.
The Apple Intelligence feature delays have become the focus of much criticism, and even multiple class action lawsuits. The lawsuits, which have been filed in California and Canada, allege that Apple falsely advertised and violated unfair competition laws by marketing features that they knew would not be ready as promised. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim they would not have been as eager to purchase and pay so much for an iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro had they known that the Apple Intelligence advertising was false and misleading.
As reported by Mactrast, a lawsuit was filed on March 19 in US District Court in San Jose, class action status and unspecified financial damages on behalf of customers who purchased Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones and other devices.
“Apple’s advertisements saturated the internet, television, and other airwaves to cultivate a clear and reasonable consumer expectation that these transformative features would be available upon the iPhone’s release,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit cited an advertisement that first premiered in September 2024, featuring actor Bella Ramsey using the same Siri features that are now delayed.
Apple has pulled that ad off of YouTube. However, the suit says: “Still, it has failed to retract all the similarly false representations in the market that began in the Summer of 2024, much less take any action that would adequately remedy the consumers harmed by the company’s widespread deception.”
Last week, the same publication reported that additional lawsuits had been filed in the US and Canada over the issues, also seeking damages from Apple.
