TOMMO.FYI

Apple Loses Head Of New Siri “Answering Machine” Project to Meta, Gurman Says.

While I wouldn’t usually carry a Gurman rumour as a headline (sad day I know, I hang my head in shame, but kudos to him for this nugget), this one, if true, is just too demonstrative of everything wrong at Apple and talent retention - given he was only promoted to the role recently - to ignore.

Tommo_UK

16 Oct 2025 — 2 min read

“Please hold — innovation is unavailable right now. Press #1 for Meta AI” - Siri’s last message from Cupertino before being boxed in favour of an Answering Madchine.

All is not well at Cupertino. The company is once again off schedule with its already late-to-the-party and now further delayed AI plans.

This turmoil and churn has to stop.

While the circumstances aren’t yet known, if the rumour is true it’s another example of Apple, uniquely among the big tech players, failing to retain top AI talent—all of whom seem to move on to OpenAI or Meta.

Google even keeps AI engineers on furlough at full salary rather than lose them. Apple just watches them arrive, and then leave.

No snark but call me concerned. If Apple can’t keep its best minds engaged while pushing out iterative product upgrades and Tim Cook tours the world drumming up iPhone 17 sales, something’s broken.

To some, this might look like a company on the cusp of reinvention. To others, it’s a sign of deeper malaise.

Nobody sheds more AI talent than Apple but no company is more dependent on it for the next hardware cycle.

The backlog of AI-dependent launches is now stretching round the block like a line of Teslas stuck in traffic with no charger in sight.

Management needs to recharge or the road to Cupertino will stay jammed at the roundabout outside the spaceship.

Question: Is Apple’s AI strategy 2024 → 2025 about to repeat itself all over again? I genuinely hope not, but this new loss shouldn’t just be written off.

Is Gruber penning another “dusty Cheetos” piece? Or will sanity prevail. I say, before it’s too late, that,

My message to Tim Cook is: get your bloody act together mate!

Because at this rate, the road to Cupertino is starting to look like Brad Pitt’s crash scenes in Formula One: The Movie.

Criticism isn’t cynicism. It’s care for what Apple once did best: surprise us.

— Tommo_UK, London. Wednesday Evening, 16th October 2025.

X: @tommo_uk | Linkedin: Tommo UK

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AAPL and the VIX: Siamese Twins in a Market That Forgot Risk Exists. Hedge, Don’t Edge Yourself

NVDA’s print has traders chasing a Santa rally while the VIX quietly sits in the low 20s, pretending risk is optional. AAPL’s climb-and-collapse should be a warning: blow-offs don’t end in celebration. If protection was a gift at 14, it’s still mispriced now.

AAPL S/R @ ~$272 Today, Where Hope Goes To Die Again, While China Props Up the CNBC Narrative.

AAPL’s five-day chart is a stumble down a staircase with no handrail. $272 has become the market’s favourite rejection zone where every bounce goes to die. Meanwhile CNBC cheers China’s ‘33% surge,’ quietly omitting that Beijing’s subsidies are doing most of the lifting.

Apple’s Next Big Risk Isn’t AVP – It’s Making John Ternus CEO. Nice Guy, Wrong Job.

Apple seems ready to replace Tim Cook with John Ternus. But with misses in mixed reality, AI, smart home, autonomy and the iPhone Air, he’s the wrong leader for a company that’s arguably lost an edge. Apple needs fresh vision, not a hardware continuity candidate doubling down on 5 years of misfires.

AAPL: A Pullback to $225 On The Cards? And A Reason Maybe, Why Not

An exercise in making the case for a pullback to $225, unless, of course, Apple manages something genuinely new for a change. Let’s give hopium the elbow and stick to observable reality for now, though.