Apple’s new CEO on what comes after iPhone Duo | Inside John Ternus' first week

It's in my blood, like goosebumps is probably, you know, and excitement and just real, like really, really excited about the future. Beyond the hardware announced at this year's iPhone event, there's a massive shift happening at the top of Apple. John Ternes officially stepped into the role of Apple CEO within the last week, and we sat down with him and Jaws for an interview at Apple Park. We asked him directly what having an engineer at the top of the company means for product design, innovation, and its strategy. And here's what John had to say about taking the helm. Shifting gears a little bit to sort of the AI question, I was super interested in what you call the intelligent personal hub. I actually sat there as you were going through this thing that does all this stuff. I'm like, is he talking about glasses? He's talking about, and you basically said, this is your iPhone. And I thought that was really interesting and kind of on point, but also almost signaled like a shift away. Like everybody's talking about, oh my gosh, this AI wearable, that AI wearable, and you're shifting attention back to the device you already have in your hand or your pocket. But does that also in any way indicate a shift in thinking at Apple about where the center of AI activity should be as opposed to something that you might wear? I wouldn't say it's a shift in thinking. I think it was sort of kind of presenting our vision of how we feel about it. And yeah, there's lots of talk about what comes next in wearables and things like that. And the reality is we make amazing wearables, right? Apple Watch is an incredible device, incredible device for AI, AirPods are as well. But I think the key is that the phone is kind of the perfect device, right? It's powerful, great battery life. It has a display. People want displays. You want to see information. Humans process information way more effectively visually than through audio. And so having a display is amazing and it fits in your pocket. And so we don't see the phone losing significance in any way, shape, or form. And in fact, because all of your personal information is on that device, that device that you hold, that you control, nobody else has access to it. Apple doesn't have access to it. We don't want access to it. That's your information. And so having that kind of in that personal hub is really powerful. And then you can take advantage of other devices and products like Apple Watch and AirPods. But having that control and that privacy, we think, especially as AI becomes more capable and more powerful, it's both a huge enabler, which if you've been playing with Siri AI, you see the value of it, but also really important from a privacy standpoint. Since you bring up privacy, I think that's something that's been in the news a lot lately, especially with meta and glasses and that sort of thing. I'd love to get your approach and your thinking around privacy, not only when it comes to this new category, I know you can't talk about unannounced products, but what do you think about the backlash around what people are calling, you know, pervert glasses to some? It's quite a marketing slogan. If you do enter, let's just say AI wearables in general, how do you make sure that people continue to trust your stance on privacy, even as you get into new markets? Yeah, I think, you know, whenever we do anything, we always do it with an eye towards privacy and security. It's something we take very seriously and approach very thoughtfully. And I think if you see the audio intelligence features that we just announced on Apple Watch, you know, it's been possible to record audio or create a transcript with apps on watches and phones for a long time. And we wanted to build something that was very privacy first, right? And so you look at Siri Recap and there is no transcript, there is no recording, like even the owner of the watch can't see the recording, it doesn't exist. There's no transcript, there's no speaker attribution, like we wanted to do this in a way that people feel comfortable using it and people around the user feel comfortable about its existence. Sure. And that's so important, right? I mean, I think a lot of people glanced over that, right? And thought, you know, it's recording you all day, it's not recording you at all, right? That's why we had to create a whole new chip for the watch that has this exclave on it that allows us to only keep that audio for the moment it needs to be processed, right? To create very high level notes, right, of what's going on. As John said, no transcript, no recording at all. And if we don't have a recording, it means no one else has the recording, right? It can't get hacked, it can't get commanded to be delivered for somebody. It is Apple doing this sort of feature, which there's clearly a need and a desire for, so we can all kind of stay in the moment, right, as we're having meetings or discussions, right? But then kind of what was the, what did we talk about again, you know, it was just that higher level notes to remind you of that without getting into all the stuff that really is privacy concerning, which a lot of other products are doing. So we'd be remiss if we didn't sort of talk about the big change that happens, well, only a week ago. John, you became CEO. I guess so. Was that just this week? You're newly minted, as they would say. And by the way, look, he's still here. He's still here. You know, here doing our tech stuff. I wouldn't miss this shot. I love that. Very impressed and very happy about it. But so look, there's some expectation. That as an engineer, and I'm going to put this in quotes, you might reinvigorate innovation at Apple. I don't think we ever lost innovation. But I kind of think that it's, the question is how you view sort of innovation, like what your feelings are about what it means to you and maybe how you think that will signify in some way the Ternus era. And because each CEO has sort of had their mark and it has something to do with who they are, how they approach things. So that's really what I'm looking to speak to, not trying to like, look, you guys have innovated. I've seen it. Look, I love making product, right? And I love doing it with the people here at Apple, and I've been doing it for 25 years. And so what I'm most excited about is to continue to build amazing things like that. And that's what we do. Yeah. Right. How many times? You're going to get very tired. I'm going to just keep going. Would you like me to throw it to you? I was going to throw it to you. But yeah. So I think for us, it's just focus on building amazing things. And I have to say, like, this is the most exciting time in my career to be building product because AI presents all these new opportunities and things we have to be really thoughtful about and deliberate about. But you can see what we're able to do now in our products that we were never able to do before. You mentioned smart take. Like, how cool is that? You set the phone up and it's just taking pictures when it's ready and when you're ready. Those are incredibly new, exciting capabilities for the kind of products we've made. But this also opens the door for new kinds of products. And so we're just really excited. Our roadmap is, I couldn't be more excited about our roadmap and what we have ahead of us. And yeah, it's going to be fun. Yeah, not going to happen. Last question for me is just like, as you look at the, not just like your own pipeline, but the competitive landscape, how do you position yourself versus the competition? Not only in terms of the foldable phone that you just introduced, but your entire product lineup? Because there's a lot that was announced this week. How would you sum it up in terms of like, here's what we're delivering now? Yeah, I think, you know, you look across our whole portfolio and it's, you know, the beauty of Apple is its hardware, software services, right? And what I love is when all of these things kind of come together and interact and create an experience that is just bigger than the sum of its parts. And so that's what we're going to continue to do is to make sure that we're delivering core experiences that really help people in all aspects of their lives, from when they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed at night. So last question. And I interviewed you probably like 12 years ago. I remember you, Phil Schiller and I, we sat together, exactly. So I feel like I know you a little bit, and so this is a bit of a more personal question, but I'm just curious what it felt like the moment. I know you've probably known you're going to be CEO for a while, but the moment when you realized, I'm about to become the CEO of one of the biggest and most important companies in the world. What did that feel like? Just because people are very curious. You're a regular, you're a guy, a regular guy. What does that feel like? I mean, it's amazing. What an extraordinary privilege, right? And I mean, the reality is I just, I love this place, right? It's in my blood. I've been here for half of my life. I love the people I work with. I love to be able to build the products that we all build together. And so Goosebumps is probably an excitement and yeah, just real, like really, really excited about the future. Cool. Thanks a lot for the time, guys. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Always a pleasure. Having a 25-year engineering veteran run the company is going to be fascinating to see play out over the next few years. But stepping out with the iPhone Duo is definitely a bold start. If you want to learn more from Jaws and Jon about what it took to make Apple's first foldable happen, click the video on your screen now to see the rest of our interview on Tom's Guide. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and we'll see you back here soon. The video, you would turn it, they threw a phone, like, yes, that was me. Can I have a picture with you? Yes, you can. Oh my gosh. That is weird. It turned you into a star. Yeah.