Apple turns 50. Here's how it can shake its midlife crisis.

By Christine Ji

After successfully conquering the smartphone and PC market, Apple must now prove that it can innovate for the AI era

Apple officially turns 50 years old on April 1, 2026.

Apple has come a long way from its days as a scrappy underdog in the personal-computing world. Over the course of 50 years, the company has grown its installed base to over 2.5 billion active devices. It is now the second-largest company in the world by market capitalization.

However, Apple (AAPL) must prove itself yet again. The company has arrived at a crossroads as artificial intelligence triggers the most profound shift the tech industry has ever seen. Can Apple innovate for an AI future while maintaining the same ethos that led it to dominate the smartphone revolution?

From the Macintosh to the iPod to the iPhone, the company has gotten to where it is today by "doubling down on its core DNA," which Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, defines as a "maniacally customer-focused experience that is simple and intuitive." To succeed in the coming decades, Apple will need to deliver new AI features and hardware while maintaining the legacy that its fanbase has grown to love.

Not all of Apple's recent strategic decisions have pleased investors, however. They arguably haven't lived up to the company's customer-driven ethos either.

Apple first unveiled Apple Intelligence at the company's 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference in 2024, but it still hasn't been able to roll out all of the features it promised at the time. Apple delivered new Siri capabilities piecemeal in the following months, and the company announced in March 2025 that a full Siri overhaul would be pushed to 2026.

The botched rollout drew criticism, including from prominent blogger John Gruber, who said Apple "squandered" its credibility by advertising features it couldn't properly deliver.

More: Could Apple's Gemini deal be the catalyst the stock needs?

As Apple's Siri delay drags on, its "Magnificent Seven" peers are embarking on a massive AI spending spree to build out data centers, leading some investors to perceive Apple as an AI laggard. Among the "Magnificent Seven," Apple's stock ranks in the middle of the pack over a one-year span, with gains of about 13% in that period.

But investors have also come to scrutinize the companies that are pouring so much money into AI hardware. Shares of Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN) have all lagged shares of Apple over the same time.

Now, the company has partnered with another of those big spenders, Google (GOOGL) (GOOG), to power the next generation of Siri, which is set to launch later this year. Chatterjee called Apple Intelligence a "recent stumble" for Apple, which has famously prioritized building its tech capabilities in-house. To others, like Max Weinbach, analyst at the technology-research firm Creative Strategies, the partnership comes off as a deft way for Apple to piggyback on another company's hefty investments while preserving its own cash flows.

While full details of the partnership haven't been revealed, Apple is reported to be transferring Gemini's capabilities into smaller and more secure models through a process called distillation. This allows Apple's Private Cloud Compute to run AI workloads, maintaining the company's commitment to privacy that

"Apple plays in a different ballpark," Weinbach said. "They don't need to build for everyone in the world. They just need to build for their customers."

Chatterjee noted that Apple has never been the first to enter a new market, whether it be personal computers or phones. Apple's lack of AI innovation hasn't hindered customer demand for its latest iPhone 17 series, which led Apple to report record iPhone sales for the holiday quarter.

The question will be whether Apple can maintain its platform loyalty if new AI form factors emerge, Chatterjee said. There could be a future in which AI applications become the dominant mode for people to discover or experience products.

"If the AI layer is going to be the primary interface, then perhaps the device does not matter as much, right? You could get by with just glasses," Chatterjee said, referring to Meta Platform's (META) smart glasses. Apple is reported to be working on a competing mass-market wearable that could launch in 2027, as well as a pendant and AirPods equipped with cameras. The company is also rumored to be developing a foldable phone that could be the star of the upcoming iPhone 18 lineup coming out this fall.

Representatives from Apple did not immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.

Read: Apple's stock rises as enthusiasm builds for a potential foldable iPhone

The company, which turns 50 on April 1, could soon see a leadership shake-up if CEO Tim Cook, 65, steps down. Apple's hardware chief, John Ternus, has been flagged by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and others as the most likely candidate to succeed Cook, and his ascension would hint at a possible increased focus on devices. Under Cook's guidance, Apple built out its higher-margin services business, which Bernstein analyst Mark Newman said will become an important earnings driver. Still, the company's brand value remains closely tied to its underlying products.

The company's latest addition to the Apple ecosystem is the MacBook Neo, a budget laptop starting at just $599. The Neo was met with widespread enthusiasm and is expected to compete fiercely with Windows laptops and Chromebooks.

With the Neo, "Apple has a great value and great product for every tier," Creative Strategies' Weinbach told MarketWatch.

The introduction of the Neo highlights a deliberate strategy to maximize the market for Apple products, Bernstein's Newman wrote in a March note, allowing users to access signature Apple features such as iCloud, iMessage and the upcoming Apple Intelligence software through a budget device. Newman called the Neo a "strategic on-ramp product" that can "expand the funnel of users who can then be monetized through Apple's higher-margin services platform."

-Christine Ji

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03-31-26 0936ET