I speculate that Apple doesn't see a need to invest in Siri because the market has shown that digital assistants don't synergize with "services" that well.
Additionally, I don't think that Apple will need to leverage the "Siri codebase" as a starting point for releasing a compelling LLM codebase - maybe voice recognition, but who knows.
Apple has shown through other product launches that they will take a "wait and see" approach and release something when its ready.
They keep releasing new hardware that could really use a much better Siri (AirPods, HomePod, Watch, and now Vision) so the ongoing lack of a quality voice UI is embarrassing.
I very much think it has to be in their near future.
I think this is a fair point. Taking a look at the product page for the $300 HomePod (https://www.apple.com/homepod-2nd-generation/), I would argue that the HomePod is marketed more as a speaker with Siri integration rather than a Siri device with a really good speaker.
The bullet points I see on the above page, in order, are
- really good speaker
- Siri integration
- integrates with Apple ecosystem for playing music
- smart home integration
- "private and secure" whatever that means
So, it's not clear to me that "a better Siri" would necessarily result in selling X amount more speakers to make Siri a worthy investment while investing in better audio technology does because it's the main selling point for HomePods.
