Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) WWDC preview: Software ecology is about to undergo major iteration and AI ecology open strategy will become the focus.

Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) will open the 2025 Global Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9th in Cupertino, California. Developers and users will be able to preview the company's software product updates for the next year. At last year's conference, Apple Inc. released the Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence platform. Although the demonstration presented impressive technological showcases, the company has not yet fulfilled all its grand promises. It is still unclear when Apple Inc. will launch a generative AI-driven Siri, and its released AI features have not truly impressed Wall Street or other fields. This year's event may reveal more information about Apple Inc.'s AI plans, but it may not replicate the impact of last year's release. However, Apple Inc. is bound to introduce a series of new features for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and other systems. Although unlikely, Apple Inc. may also unveil new hardware at this conference. Here are the highlights of Apple Inc.'s WWDC 2025 worth looking forward to: Comprehensive design and naming updates According to renowned Apple Inc. reporter Mark Gurman, Apple Inc. is making major changes to its core software, drawing inspiration from the design language of the Vision Pro headset's visionOS operating system to bring a new visual style to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. From icons, menus to applications, all will receive updates, Gurman called it the biggest style change in iOS since 2013 and the most thorough design innovation in macOS since 2020. Tech blogger Jon Prosser claims to have access to the next generation of iOS beta testing, his YouTube video shows new features triggered by clicking on the application icon, and a redesigned camera application. Gurman also pointed out that Apple Inc. will adjust the operating system naming rules, changing to use a suffix of the release year. This means there will be no "iOS 19" this year, it will be directly named "iOS 26". Although this change has limited impact on most users - after all, few people know the specific system version they are using - this change is worth paying attention to. The combination of these software updates and the new generation of iPhones is worth looking forward to. It is reported that Apple Inc. will launch a significantly thinner iPhone 17 this fall, which may help boost sales in the Chinese market (Apple Inc.'s revenue in China has been declining for several quarters since the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023). With the new system, the upgrade value of iPhone 17 will far exceed simple hardware improvements. Progressive updates of AI functions Although artificial intelligence may not take center stage as it did at WWDC 2024, Apple Inc. will still showcase several new AI features. According to Gurman, this includes an AI battery management system and real-time translation function for AirPods. As part of Apple Intelligence, the battery management system can learn the user's habits and dynamically adjust the power supply according to the usage scenario. AirPods' real-time translation supports cross-language conversation understanding (Alphabet Inc. Class C earphones already have similar functions), but achieving two-way communication still requires both parties to wear AirPods. Earlier, Apple Inc. added over-the-counter hearing aid functionality to AirPods Pro. Apple Inc. is preparing to open its large language model architecture to third-party developers, which may encourage developers to develop AI applications that can run directly on the iPhone without relying on the cloud. In addition, Apple Inc. is reportedly developing a unified game app to replace the existing Game Center, continuing to strengthen its gaming ecosystem. Although still lagging behind traditional gaming support on consoles and PC platforms, with the App Store, Apple Inc. is already one of the world's largest mobile gaming platforms. Integrating gaming services will be a win-win for users and Apple Inc.