Apple CEO John Ternus wants you to know that the iPhone isn’t going anywhere. Ternus threw his weight behind the venerable device on Wednesday during his first keynote as CEO, placing it firmly at the center of Apple’s product strategy for the AI era. This contrasts with the approach taken by former CEO Tim Cook, who tried time and again to convince Wall Street that Apple was more than just the iPhone.
Ternus’ pitch is also a rebuttal to pundits who have recently cast doubt on the iPhone. But it’s not just about the hardware. Ternus has put the iPhone at the center of his “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. At a Macworld New York keynote, Jobs called out bearish quotes from industry wonks like Walt Mossberg and the leaders of Compaq and Gateway.
That our PC is waning if not the hole being dug,” Jobs said at the time, pointing at a tombstone for the “Beloved PC” on the screen behind him. We don’t think the PC is moving away from the center at all. We think it’s evolving, just like it has since it was invented.” “We think the PC is on the threshold of entering its third great age,” Jobs added, a prediction driven by the proliferation of digital devices at the time, including camcorders, digital cameras, and DVD players.
The Mac would form the center of a “digital hub” that would connect these disparate devices and, in Jobs’ words, “add value” to all of them. Later that year, Jobs pulled the iPod out of his pocket, a device seemingly developed to answer the question, “Why do you still need a PC?” The device turned out to be an enormous hit, driving Apple’s profits quarter after quarter and ultimately helping lead to the development of the iPhone. Today, with the iPhone on the cusp of its 20th anniversary, Ternus is facing a version of the same question Jobs took on in 2001.
We don’t know if Ternus is quietly sitting on an iPod-like product, one that will secure the iPhone’s position a Apple’s hub for years to come. But he is firmly rebutting the idea that the iPhone is past its prime. It helps that the iPhone is one of the most powerful personal computing devices around, giving it an edge in the compute-hungry AI era.
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