History has a curious way to repeat in Apple. When the company presented Apple Intelligence and promised a revolution in the user experience with a completely renewed Siri, Many we are emerging from the potential. However, subsequent delays lead us to an interesting reflection: does Apple follow the same model as Steve Jobs used with the original iPhone? The similarities are too obvious to ignore them.
The big illusion of the iPhone: when jobs showed a prototype as a finished product
In January 2007, the world was captivated by the presentation of the first iPhone. Steve Jobs, with its characteristic theatricalityshowed a device that seemed to work perfectly by sailing online, played with music and made calls without apparent effort. What the public did not know was that it was practically a mirage.
The iPhone we saw on stage was, in reality, an unfinished prototype in the grip of problems. Applications have consumed too many resources, causing frequent hangers and Many functions were barely stable. Apple's solution was to create what they called internally the “golden path” or “Golden Way”: a sequence of meticulously tested actions which, carried out in a specific order, created the illusion of a functional product.
If the jobs have moved away from this script (I sent an email after sailing on the internet instead of doing it before), The iPhone simply blocked. To avoid these live failures, Apple used several iPhone during the presentation, by exchanging them subtly. He even installed A special antenna of AT&T Configured exclusively for stage peripherals. The strategy worked brilliantly. The world thought that the iPhone was ready, when in reality months of intensive development were there before its launch in June of the same year.
Steve Jobs with several iPhone on the stand to make a demo with each of them
And what is impressive is that all of this happened live, in front of hundreds of journalists. A single visible error would have collapsed all the illusion. This period of live keynots was an unrivaled level of pressure, where each demonstration was an instant public lawsuit on the product.
We all remember Moments like the “Face” of the ID When presenting the iPhone X, when Craig Federight tried to unlock the device live. Although it was, it was learned that it was not a technical failure (the phone had been handled from another angle), this moment generated tensions and immediate titles.
Apple Intelligence and Siri: same script, different result
Almost two decades later, Apple tried to reproduce this strategy with Apple Intelligence and the new Siri, but with a fundamental difference: There is no live risk. Since 2020, Apple Keynotes have become recorded and meticulously published by audiovisual productions, completely eliminating the possibility of visible failures.
What we saw in the presentation of Apple Intelligence in June was not a functional demo with its limits, like the iPhone Jobs, but essentially A video animation that has shown how the product should work. As the New York Times revealed, Apple had to completely reorganize its teams. And despite the delays (that some rumors were placed even in 2026), it seems that the new Siri will finally arrive this fall with iOS 19. Will they promise us initially? Or will we see a small version of this original vision?
Despite the challenges of Siri and Apple Intelligence's development, It is important to recognize that the other new features have arrived in time. According to iOS 18.4, we already have the intelligence of Apple in Spanish as promised, and the functions such as the magic project or the integration of chatgpt with Siri are very useful.
Work vs the current apple
Jobs was known for its brutal opening. He did not hesitate to qualify the work of his teams as “shit” if he did not meet his expectations, whatever the efforts they had invested. This attitude has created a constant tension environment, but also to overcome. During the tests before the presentation of the iPhone, when something failed, Jobs discharged his frustration in the person responsible for sentences such as: “If we fail, it will only be because of you.” Jobs preferred to launch months of work And start again to give more opportunities.
And everything was not successful with jobs. The musical network Ping, launched with iTunes, failed strong due to its lack of functionality and concentration. Mobileme, the precursor of iCloud, had a chaotic launch plagued by technical problems which even led jobs to apologize publicly.
The current apple, directed by Tim Cook has evolved towards a more structured work model and collaborative. This transition is not something negative: it reflects a company which operates on a much larger scale and which, under Tim Cook, has obtained mass successes such as the expansion of services, the transition to Apple silicon fleas and the progress of sustainability. If Jobs was the visionary who challenged what was established, Tim Cook was the strategist that took this vision on every corner of the world, making Apple one of the most profitable companies and admired.
It is tempting to fall into the game of “What would work have done?”. Would it have allowed the new Siri to be so delayed? Or would I have preferred to launch a more limited but perfectly polished version, as it did with the first iPhone (which, remember, did not even allow to copy and stick)? The reality is that we cannot know. What we know is that the current jobs and Apple have followed a similar principle: present an ambitious vision while working on details. The difference lies in the way they have managed the gap between promise and reality.
Jobs has created a perfect illusion with the iPhone, masterfully hiding its limits until you have ready it. Apple Intelligence with Siri, on the other hand, had to publicly adjust their expectations, recognizing that the task was more complex than expected. The question may not be whether with jobs, it would have been different, but if in the current era, with fierce competition in AI and the immediacy of the information, It would be possible to maintain the illusion for months as was done in 2007.
Of course, whether with a “golden path” executed live under immense pressure, as with a more controlled approach through pre-recorded videos, the objective remains the same: surprise us with the impossible, although they sometimes need a little more time to realize.
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