NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / June 20, 2025 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple Inc. ("Apple" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: AAPL) and certain officers. The class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and docketed under 25-cv-05197, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants that purchased or otherwise acquired Apple securities between June 10, 2024 and June 9, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.
If you are an investor who purchased or otherwise acquired Apple securities during the Class Period, you have until August 19, 2025 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
[Click here for information about joining the class action]
Apple is a multinational technology company that engages primarily in the businesses of smart-device and computer design and manufacturing, entertainment and artificial intelligence ("AI"). Apple's software includes a rudimentary digital personal assistant called "Siri," which the Company first introduced in October 2011.
Apple's highest revenue product is the iPhone. The Company typically introduces a new line of iPhones each year in the fall. Most recently, Apple introduced the iPhone 16 in October 2024.
In recent years, several of Apple's competitors have developed and/or launched advanced AI capabilities based on large language models. For example, Google and Microsoft have each launched generative-AI chatbots respectively referred to as Gemini and Copilot. In addition, Amazon has announced that it was introducing Alexa+, a conversational, generative-AI version of its own virtual assistant technology. Accordingly, Apple has felt pressure to introduce AI-based capabilities on its iPhones, and in particular to introduce advanced AI-based Siri features.
In June 2024, Apple announced advanced AI-based Siri features at its Worldwide Developer Conference ("WWDC") (the "2024 WWDC")-an event designed to showcase the Company's new software and technologies-as the primary reason for consumers to purchase iPhone 16 devices. Specifically, the Company introduced Apple Intelligence, the "personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with users' personal context - at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac to deliver intelligence that's incredibly useful and relevant." Apple stated that Apple Intelligence, among other things, will make Siri "more deeply integrated into the system experience," and "[w]ith richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri is more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. It can follow along if users stumble over words and maintain context from one request to the next." However, unbeknownst to investors, Apple lacked a functional prototype of these advanced AI-based Siri features at the time of the 2024 WWDC and had no reasonable basis to believe it could deliver the product it was advertising within the iPhone 16 product cycle, if ever.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Apple misstated the time it would take to integrate the advanced AI-based Siri features into its devices; (ii) accordingly, it was highly unlikely that these features would be available for the iPhone 16; (iii) the lack of such advanced AI-based features would hurt iPhone 16 sales; (iv) as a result, Apple's business and/or financial prospects were overstated; and (v) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On March 7, 2025, Apple announced that it was indefinitely delaying promised updates to its Siri digital assistant. Specifically, multiple news outlets quoted an Apple spokeswoman as stating that certain features initially announced in June 2024, including Siri's ability to tap into a user's personal information to answer queries and have more precise control over apps, were "tak[ing] [] longer [to deliver] than [the Company] thought" and will now be released sometime in "the coming year." That same day, this statement was published by John Gruber, the writer and producer of the technology-focused weblog Daring Fireball, who criticized Apple's promised AI-based Siri features as having been "vaporware" (imaginary) and Apple's 2024 WWDC advertising as being, in retrospect, merely a "concept video." In addition, Apple stopped running advertisements promoting the advanced AI-based Siri features and pulled those advertisements from its website and YouTube account.
On this news, Apple's stock price fell $11.59 per share, or 4.85%, to close at $227.48 per share on March 10, 2025.
Then, on March 12, 2025, Morgan Stanley published a report in which analyst Erik Woodring lowered his price target on Apple from $275 to $252, asserting that the delay in introducing advanced Siri features would impact iPhone upgrade cycles throughout 2025 and 2026. Woodring presented evidence that roughly 50% of iPhone owners who did not upgrade to the iPhone 16 attributed their decision to such delays.
On this news, Apple's stock price fell $11.16 per share, or 5.05%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $209.68 per share on March 13, 2025.
Then, on April 3, 2025, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "Apple and Amazon Promised Us Revolutionary AI. We're Still Waiting." The Wall Street Journal stated, in relevant part, that "[w]ith ‘more personal' Siri [. . .], the tech giant[] marketed features [it] ha[s] yet to deliver," and suggested that while "this is challenging technology and the cost of getting it wrong is devastatingly high, especially for [a] company[y] like Apple [. . .] that must build trust with customers," "the same responsibility applies to marketing: They shouldn't announce products until they're sure they can deliver them." (Emphasis in original).
On this news, Apple's stock price fell $14.79 per share, or 7.28%, to close at $188.13 per share on April 4, 2025.
Finally, on June 9, Apple hosted its WWDC for 2025 (the "2025 WWDC"), almost one year to the day after first announcing the suite of supposedly forthcoming Apple Intelligence features at the 2024 WWDC. Conspicuously, the Company failed to announce any new updates regarding advanced Siri features. Analysts and media outlets variously described the WWDC as "underwhelming" and "disappointing," with CNN commenting that "it's unlikely that any of the announcements made at Monday's event will change the perception that Apple is behind its competitors in AI."
Following the 2025 WWDC, Apple's stock price fell another $2.47 per share, or 1.21%, to close at $201.45 per share on June 9, 2025.
Apple's own team has admitted that the advanced AI-based Siri features that it had advertised as reasons to purchase iPhone 16 Devices had not been developed by the time of the 2024 WWDC, or at any other time. For example, at an all-hands meeting for the Siri division following the announcement of the delays, Robby Walker ("Walker"), senior director responsible for Siri, stated that Apple had publicly promoted the technology "before it was ready." Walker called the delays to the key features "ugly and embarrassing" and stated, "[t]his was not one of these situations where we get to show people our plan after it's done. We showed people before." He also noted that "to make matters worse," Apple's marketing communications department wanted to promote the enhancements, and, despite not being ready, they were included in a series of marketing campaigns and TV commercials. Apple touted the features as a "key selling point" of the iPhone 16 line, which otherwise lacked major changes.
In an article entitled "Apple Delays Siri Upgrade Indefinitely as AI Concerns Escalate," Bloomberg stated that Apple has pushed the expected release of these features until at least the next full version of iOS, iOS 19, which is not expected to be released until September 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, while Apple is aiming to include these features in iOS 19, Walker has stated that that "doesn't mean that we're shipping then," and Apple has "other commitments across Apple to other projects." In fact, there is no guarantee that the advanced AI-based Siri features Apple promised will ever be available. Indeed, Apple's software chief Craig Federighi and other Apple executives have "voiced strong concerns internally that the features didn't work properly-or as advertised-in their personal testing," and some within Apple's AI division "believe that work on the features could be scrapped altogether, and that Apple may have to rebuild the functions from scratch."
Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.
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SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
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