CEO John Ternus wants you to know where the iPhone isn’t going.
Ternus threw his weight behind the venerable device on Wednesday during his first major as CEO, making it the centerpiece of Apple’s product strategy for the AI era.
“There is no product in the world better designed to be the center of your smart personal life than the iPhone,” he said.
This contrasts with the approach taken by former CEO Tim Cook, who tried time and again to convince Wall Street that Apple is more than just an iPhone.
Ternus’ pitch is also a rebuttal to pundits who have recently cast doubt on the iPhone. “The days of smartphones are numbered,” said One topic. “The Tim Cook era is drawing to a close with an existential challenge for Apple: figuring out what happens after the iPhone,” Another article.
But it’s not just about hardware. Ternus has placed the iPhone at the center of its “intelligent personal assistant” strategy, a vision that could define the company for years to come. Steve Jobs did something similar in 2001 with the Mac, less than 10 months before he announced the iPod.
At the time, many observers thought the PC’s days were numbered. In a keynote speech at Macworld New York, Jobs called for soft words from industry figures such as Walt Mossberg and the leaders of Compaq and Gateway.
“This is what other people are telling us,” Jobs said at the time, pointing to the grave of the “beloved PC” on the screen behind him. “We don’t think the PC is going to die.” We don’t think the PC will move away from the center at all. We think it’s constantly evolving, just as it has been since it was invented.”
“We think the PC is on the verge of entering the third great era,” Jobs added, a prediction driven by the proliferation of digital devices at the time, including camcorders, digital cameras, and DVD players.
The Mac will be the center of a “digital hub” that will connect these disparate devices and, in Jobs’ words, “add value” to all of them.
A year later, Jobs pulled an iPod out of his pocket, a device that seemed to have evolved to answer the question, “Why do you still need a PC?” The device turned out to be a huge hit, driving Apple’s profits quarter after quarter and eventually helping lead to the development of the iPhone.
Today, with the iPhone on its 20th anniversary, Ternus is facing the same question that Jobs did in 2001. We do not know that Ternus is sitting quietly on products like the iPod, which will make the position of the iPhone central to Apple for years to come. But he strongly rejects the idea that the iPhone has passed its prime.
“If you were to design an ideal version of this center from scratch, what would you do?” Ternus asked before listing the ingredients: a powerful processor, a high-resolution camera, a stable network, and AI on the device.
It helps that the iPhone is One of the most powerful Personal computing devices around, making it an edge in the era of AI hungry computers. Its portability and adaptability make it, for many, the only computing device they need. Even among those who own laptops and iPads, the iPhone is often the one device they can’t live without. Many people leave home without their laptop. Almost no one leaves without their phone.
The combination of power and mobility has given Apple a privileged position in the AI world. Other companies have tried to unseat the iPhone with all kinds of wearable devices, but without success.
Instead of ditching the iPhone in favor of the next thing to flash, Ternus is leaning on it instead. In turn, he brought Apple to what the rest of us already know: the iPhone is great, and maybe we don’t need to replace it with something else. yet.
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