Welcome To Apple’s Vertical Integration Of Glass

A developer’s look at Apple’s 2025 developer conference. Finally realistic, or just plain boring?

Liquid Glass design system. Photo by Apple, used with written permission.

Those of us who write code for a living know this all too well: management promises the sun and the moon, while developers often shake their heads at the prospect of impossible deliveries. Last year’s WWDC, while pretty jaw-dropping, it did feel a bit like that. In concept, we were promised a lot, in reality, we got about half of it, and when it comes to better Siri, we got none of it. The classic overpromise and underdeliver scenario. It appears Apple have learnt their lesson and in 2025 they’re promising a lot less — in fact so little that the most significant change feels like polishing something that doesn’t quite need the extra shine.

The headline may seem a tad tongue in cheek, but pun aside, Apple has in fact, probably for the first time in tech history, vertically integrated glass into their products.

The iPhone has a polished glass back, the blue M4 MacBook Air looks like polished glass in the sunlight, and now we have polished glass in the software too. Apple really likes glass, and they’re committing to it…