John Ternus has given an interview as Apple CEO and, after succeeding Tim Cook, he spoke about Siri, artificial intelligence, Vision Pro, and the iPhone Duo. A really interesting interview and one of the first to cover such a wide variety of topics at such length. In short, this is what was discussed.
Tim Cook, Steve Jobs, and the next product
Ternus explains how the offer to become CEO surprised him enormously. For years, his idea had been to focus on building products. From Steve Jobs and Tim Cook he remembers an important lesson: Apple must always look ahead. After each launch comes the next step, the next product.
“Well, I think when Tim asked me whether it was something I’d consider, I’d say the good news is that I was sitting down [laughs], because not in a million years would I have imagined that something like that could happen. For me it’s always simply been about being here, focusing on the work, creating incredible things, and enjoying every minute. That they gave me this opportunity, that they put it to me, was something truly mind-blowing. There are no words to describe it.”
As for the iPhone Duo, Ternus explains that Apple built on the iPad experience to design its unfolded screen and then worked on getting the hinge right and the panel’s reliability.
AI, Siri, and the future of Vision Pro
For Ternus, generative AI is the most exciting moment of his entire career. The technology will make it possible to create new experiences and products, while Siri AI in iOS 27 takes its first steps in the right direction.
“I think what’s really interesting about this moment is AI… generative AI. It’s a really powerful technology, and that makes this the most exciting moment of my career to create products, because now we can do so many new things, things that used to be pure science fiction. So we’re really excited about, as I was saying earlier, harnessing this technology and using it in different ways to create new experiences, new products, and new capabilities. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Vision Pro also has a future, which Ternus compares to the first personal computers and highlights its applications in surgery and film production, among others.
“For me, Vision Pro is an incredible device. It’s an absolutely incredible device. But I think of it like the early days of computers. We’re at the beginning of a long road. That’s how I see Vision Pro.”
“If you think about those early years, people kept finding different reasons why the computer, the Mac, allowed them to do things that had been impossible before. For example, desktop publishing, which ended up becoming something very important in that industry.”
We’re at the beginning of a very long journey, according to Ternus, and more surprises and announcements are on the way, so we’ll have to pay closer attention than ever to the news coming out of Cupertino.
