The core of Apple's problem boils down to apathy towards their product quality. I just recently switched from using Siri to Google Gemini in my car. The experience is dramatically better.
And this is the case across the board.
My friend's Fitbit works way better than my Apple watch.
Third and final example is how bad Apple's native dictation engine is. I can run OpenAI Whisper models on my Mac and get dramatically better output.
As a long time Apple fan who's had everything since before the first iPhone, I feel this apathy towards product quality cannot be disguised as some strategic decision to fast follow with AI.
> My friend's Fitbit works way better than my Apple watch.
My husband has a Fitbit and it's so buggy he left it sit on the shelf most of the time - the only times he'd wear it is for exercise.
Siri is bad though, but I have found Google Voice Assistant and Alexa both really have become bad over time, to the point of us just giving up on them completely. My husband is on Android and I'm really surprised how bad voice assistant is despite all the Gemini launches! (mind you he has an Australian accent)
But for everything else, you literally just said, the handful of AI features are better on Google products... That seldom makes the product as a whole better.
>> My friend's Fitbit works way better than my Apple watch.
That's odd because I've used both, along with a bunch other wearables (e.g. Whoop), and I wouldn't give up my Apple Watch for anything. Massively useful, can take calls, make payments, stream music from my Apple playlists, read and reply to messages, and a ton of other things.
The wearos devices can do all that stuff too, and fitbit is kind of getting blended into those devices piece by piece -- so after years of Fitbit use I can say that the best fitbit device i've had is ... a Pixel Watch 4.
I mention this because , at least for the functionalities that you mention, I think the pixel watches are catching up nicely.
... but they still haven't been able to make me feel less stupid talking into a watch for phone calls like some off-brand James Bond wannabe, even if it works great.
You're arguing about product quality by using product availability examples.
Siri isn't competing with Gemini, yet.. Siri is old tech, Gemini is the new tech.
Same with dictation.
Siri hasn't been updated generationally with SOTA to compete with Gemini yet.. it simply hasn't been updated. This is part of the "slow pace" that the post is talking about (part of, not entirely the slowness though).
For example, Amazon updated my old Echo dots with Alexa+ beta, and it's pretty good. I have Grok in my Tesla, and though I don't like Grok or xAI, it's there and I use it occasionally.
Apple hasn't done their release of these things yet.
How so? Their brand new Siri _is_ available. I am using their Apple intelligence on my new iPhone. They even have half baked ChatGPT integrations everywhere. They got into lot of trouble last year for running ads for overselling what their new siri can do.
Overselling abilities is for sure a lack of quality.
The new Apple Intelligence version of Siri isn't out yet. It's scheduled to arrive with iOS 26.4 in early/mid 2026.
My assertion is that Apple hasn't yet released a generational complement to Gemini or ChatGPT voice modes. That's a problem, but one specifically of availability and release, which.. again (and despite the downvoters).. matches the assertion of the post ("slow AI pace").
If/when new Siri in 26.4 comes out and it sucks, then that'd be an issue of quality.
No, when I bought my first iphone, Siri could start a chronometer. Then it couldn’t for 5 years, and today it can again. It’s a big flaw for a product which can barely do anything else.
I only have Apple product because it’s good build quality. But it’s quite bad products.
I think Apple secretly doesn’t want more market share, to avoid anticompetitive accusations.
And this is the case across the board.
My friend's Fitbit works way better than my Apple watch.
Third and final example is how bad Apple's native dictation engine is. I can run OpenAI Whisper models on my Mac and get dramatically better output.
As a long time Apple fan who's had everything since before the first iPhone, I feel this apathy towards product quality cannot be disguised as some strategic decision to fast follow with AI.