LTA 143: July 2025

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bartb.ie

The show starts with a few quick followups from recent shows, a few regulatory & legal stories, some substantial Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services & original content before getting stuck into three main stories. We start with Apple’s Q3 2025 earnings, then check in on Apple’s continuing efforts to address their failure to deliver on AI, and we finish with a look at Apple’s new AppleCare One subscription. another bad month for Apple’s app store practices on both sides of the Atlantic, and then we dive into the fun stuff, this year’s bumper WWDC! The show wraps up with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in July 2025.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• Apple have filed another motion in their on-going appeal of the injunction forcing external payment links in the US store through the never-ending Epic -v- Apple case, and it's a doosie, citing the recent US Supreme Court ruling lifting the injunction against the Trump administration breaking the US constitution and ignoring the big about birth right citizenship — appleinsider.com/…

  • The Supreme Court basically said lower court judges can't nationally block Trump violating the constitution, each citizen being illegally deported on little or no notice would need to file their own case
  • Apple's logic is that this clearly implies each developer would need to file their own case too
  • Related News: Google loses to Epic Games in Play Store appeal — appleinsider.com/…

• Based on credible reporting from the Financial Times, the UK is trying to find a face-saving climb-down in it's attempt to use a secret court to force Apple to back-door iCloud Advanced Data Protection — www.macobserver.com/…

• AirPods Pro hearing aid features roll out to more countries — appleinsider.com/… (Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Palestinian Territories, Serbia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine & Vietnam)

• Apple Opens Public Betas for macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and HomePod Software 26 — tidbits.com/… (⚠️ Don't install betas on devices you need to actually get work done!)

Regulatory Rundown

• Apple's battle with the European Commission over the Digital Markets Act (DMA) rumbled on this month:

  • The month started with Apple filing it's formal appeal as promised, basically arguing that the Commission is going beyond the law, and trying to get Apple to do more than the law actually requires of them — daringfireball.net/…

    "Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision — and their unprecedented fine — go far beyond what the law requires. As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users. We implemented this to avoid punitive daily fines and will share the facts with the Court." — Apple Spokesperson

  • According to credible reporting by the FT, Apple and the commission are finally engaging with each other, and quietly working to negotiate more App Store changes to avoid further fines — www.macrumors.com/…

    • Related: Dutch Antitrust Watchdog Pauses Ruling on Apple Fees for Dating Apps — www.macobserver.com/… (pausing to see what Apple & the commission negotiate)

  • Related: Spain widens App Store antitrust probe to examine pricing — appleinsider.com/…

  • Related: EU Ends Corning Glass Inquiry, Apple Deal Remains Unaffected — www.macobserver.com/…

• The UK publishes it's plan to regulate Apple & Google under their DMA-like Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Act — appleinsider.com/…

  • Open to public comment now, expected to be finalised on the 22nd of October
  • Designates both Apple & Google as having 'strategic market power' under the act (like being designated gatekeepers under the DMA)
  • Despite the designation, the Consumer & Markets Authority (the body responsible for implementing the regulation) don't actually plan to do anything any time soon, they're going to 'monitor' Apple & Google's behaviour for up to five years and are 'considering' mandating side-loading and/or 3rd-party stores.
  • Even with such a weak outcome, Apple are not happy!
  • Epic game are really not happy: Fortnite’s Comeback in UK “Uncertain” as CMA Delays Action on Apple — www.macobserver.com/…

• Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has published it's plans to implement the country's new Mobile Software Competition Act — www.macobserver.com/… (3rd-party app stores and outside payments)

• Apple has filed it's response to the DOJ's anti-trust allegations, countering each of the DOJ's 236 paragraphs point-by-point, concluding simply that "The DOJ is wrong" — appleinsider.com/…

  • An excellent summary: Apple slams DOJ lawsuit: ’threatens the very principles that set iPhone apart’ — 9to5mac.com/…

• ITC Ruling Puts Apple’s iPhone OLED Supply Chain at Risk — www.macobserver.com/…

  • A preliminary ruling, it's expected to become final in November, so nothing happens for now, but this could cause Apple problems before the end of the year

Legal Latest

• Apple -v- Masimo (blood oxygen monitoring in Apple Watch): at an oral hearing the case Apple argued that the ban should never have been issued because Masimo's supposed product being harmed by the on-going dispute did not really exist, though Masimo disagreed — www.macobserver.com/… & www.reuters.com/…

  • To get an import ban you need to show actual harm to a competing product, not just patent violation
  • Masimo's first competing product was still 2 years away when the import ban was imposed
  • Masimo argued that they had prototypes and they were working on them so Apple is just trying to re-write the law by adding extra stipulations

• Judge blocks class suit claiming iOS 13 ignored data settings — appleinsider.com/… (someone tried to argue it was deceptive that upgrading to the paid tier meant not keeping your free 5GB as well)

• Apple is suing John Prosser, the YouTuber who leaked the Liquid Glass design a few months before WWDC, claiming he paid for those leaks, which would be very illegal indeed — www.macobserver.com/… (Prosser says Apple haven't got their facts quite right, but didn't elaborate)

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Apple has won an appeal against an NLRB (National Labour Relations Board) ruling that it was illegally union busting in an NYC store — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple COO Jeff Williams retiring later in 2025, replaced by SVP Sabih Khan — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)

  • Two-step process — Williams left COO role at the end of July, the design team will continue to report to him until he retires later this year

  • Apple’s Design Leadership Returns to CEO Tim Cook After Williams’ Retirement — www.macobserver.com/…

  • Opinion & Analysis:

    • How Jeff Williams' departure from Apple will shuffle exec responsibilities — appleinsider.com/…
    • John Gruber's thoughts — daringfireball.net/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple Music Reveals Top 500 Streamed Songs to Mark 10-Year Anniversary — www.macobserver.com/…

• Apple Arcade:

  • Usual release of new games, including from PlayDoh & my beloved Worms franchise — appleinsider.com/…

  • Apple Arcade brings SpongeBob SquarePants to slew of iPhone and iPad games — www.cultofmac.com/… ( Apple PR)

    • Spongebob showing up in other games including Snake.io+ & Crossy Road Castle)

• Apple TV+:

  • 'Severance' dominates 2025 Emmy Awards nominations list — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)

    • 27 nominations for Severance, including for the male and female leads
    • "Apple also lands the most acting nominations of any network or studio this year, with 31 performance nods total" — Apple PR

  • F1 Movie Sets Apple Box Office Record with $509 Million Globally — www.macobserver.com/…

  • MLS and Liga MX face off in Leagues Cup 2025 on Apple TV — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)

    • A cross-over soccer league featuring teams from the USA & Mexico
    • Related: Apple Sports arrives in Mexico, adds UK's FA Cup — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple Wallet Users Can Now Ride South Korea’s Transit with Tmoney — www.macobserver.com/…

• Apple News+ Audio finally arrives in UK, Canada, Australia — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple Reports Record-Breaking Q3 2025 Results — tidbits.com/… ( Apple PR)

   • This is Tim: Complete transcript of Apple’s Q3 2025 financial call — sixcolors.com/…

   • Apple Q3 2025 results and charts: $95B revenue — sixcolors.com/…

   • Apple's $94B Q3 soundly beats Wall Street thanks to iPhone and China growth — appleinsider.com/…

   • Apple shatters expectations with 10% revenue surge — www.cultofmac.com/…

   • Apple's Q3 2025 cash dividend is up in spite of growing tariff concerns — appleinsider.com/…

   • Tim Cook: We spent on AI companies in the quarter, but nobody big — appleinsider.com/…

   • Apple has sold 3 billion iPhones since 2007 — appleinsider.com/…

   • Related: The Orwellianly-named One Big Beautiful Bill has provisions that will give Apple more tax write-offs for US-based R&D spending — appleinsider.com/…

   • Apple also added some clarity on Tariffs: Apple staring down $2 billion in total tariff costs in total before end of September — appleinsider.com/…

     • Apple had estimated the tariffs for this quarter would be $900M, but they were 'only' $800M.

     • Apple is now estimating a cost of $1.1Bn for the next quarter, assuming nothing changes, which is, of course, unlikely!

     • Other Tariff Related Stories:

       • As more trade deals get done with more countries involved in Apple's supply chain the long-term uncertainty begins to crystallise, and there are going to be substantial long-term cost increases no matter how much Apple juggles things around — appleinsider.com/…

       • one effect of Apple's tariff-minimising efforts is that, based on credible reporting, for the first time ever launch-day production will not happen only in China for the iPhones 17, but also in India — www.macobserver.com/…

       • Apple is investing $500M in MP Materials, a US firm mining for rare earths in the US to produce the kinds of rare earth magnets Apple needs, this is the same company the US government also invested $400M in this month — appleinsider.com/… & daringfireball.net/…

       • TSMC reports the American chip fab they broke ground on earlier this year is being fast-tracked, so they expect to open it "several quarters" ahead of schedule — www.macobserver.com/…

       • Apple opening manufacturing academy in Detroit to boost US innovation — www.cultofmac.com/…

         The academy will host small and medium-sized businesses from across the country for workshops led by Apple experts, developed in partnership with Michigan State University. Companies can learn to implement artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing methods to modernize their operations.

2. Apple continues to address it's failure to deliver on it's biggest AI promises

   • Related: Apple's delayed Siri update spawns another securities lawsuit — appleinsider.com/… (second proposed class action suit for investors)

   • July was a bad month for Apple's AI talent pool:

     • Apple’s AI Chief Behind Genmoji and Siri Revamp Joins Meta — www.macobserver.com/… (Ruoming Pang)

       • Meta lured AI exec away from Apple with blockbuster $200M pay package — appleinsider.com/…

     • Meta has poached two more heavyweights from Apple's AI team — appleinsider.com/… (Mark Lee & Tom Gunter, not execs, but experienced engineers based on the reporting)

     • Apple AI brain drain continues as a fourth researcher joins Meta — www.cultofmac.com/… (Bowen Zhang, a researcher rather than an exec or engineer)

   • The day after the earnings call, Apple held a very rare all-hands meeting to update staff on the companies plans, and there was a big focus on Apple Intelligence — appleinsider.com/…

     • Tim Cook made it clear Apple can and must get AI right, and that the company is going to invest a lot of money to help make that happen.
     • To rally the troops Cook made the point that Apple doesn't come first, but it delivers the best, and it has to do that again with AI.
     • Craig Federighi explained how the first attempt at better Siri failed because they got the architecture wrong, it was a hybrid of old and new Siri, and it just wasn't working, so they've started over with a new architecture and things are now on the right track, and he even said they were on course to deliver more than promised.

   • Apple's research team are continuing to publish reports and papers at an impressive rate (seems to be accelerating even!)

     • Apple has published a technical report of where their AI efforts stand now — machinelearning.apple.com/… (PDF)

       • A good summary: Apple insists its AI training is ethical and respects publishers — appleinsider.com/…

     • Apple published 8 research papers: Apple researchers take aim at AI hallucinations and true conversations — appleinsider.com/…

3. Apple has launched a subscription version of Apple Care branded as AppleCare One — appleinsider.com/…

   • US-only initially
   • $19.99 per month for up to three devices, with the option to add additional devices for $5.99 each per month.
   • Bundles support and protection into a single subscription.
   • Devices can be swapped in an out, and new devices with trade-ins get automatically swapped.
   • Older devices can be added in to the plan up to 4 years after purchase — appleinsider.com/…
   • Users who already have AppleCare+ can switch to this subscription and get refunds for that existing cover in the form of Apple Gift Cards — appleinsider.com/…
   • This new offering is compatible with Apple's iPhone upgrade program, but with some faffing about — appleinsider.com/…
   • Related: AppleCare+ brings theft and loss option to iPad and Apple Watch — appleinsider.com/…

Quick Stories

• A few small App Store tweaks for developers:

  • In preparation for Apple's 26-series OSes and their enhanced parental controls, developers now have to provide age rating details in their app submissions — appleinsider.com/…
  • Developers can now try special offers to persuade subscribers to stay — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple celebrates World Emoji Day with early release of 'Emoji Game' — appleinsider.com/… (previwed at WWDC, not expected until the 26-series OSes come out)

• Apple Store now online in Saudi Arabia with Arabic support, personalized shopping — www.cultofmac.com/…

• Apple’s 2025 EU ‘Back to School’ Offer: Free AirPods, Upgrades, and More — www.macobserver.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.