Apple CEO John Ternus on the iPhone Duo, Apple Intelligence AI, and Apple's Next Big Thing
📅 Oct 20, 2026TIME9 MIN4 VIEWS29 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
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Apple CEO John Ternus discusses the new foldable iPhone Duo, Apple Intelligence AI, Siri's future, and Apple's next era of innovation following Tim Cook's departure in an exclusive interview with TIME.
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0:00 Apple CEO John Ternus and Ap...
What John Ternus said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
John Ternus, Apple's new CEO, discussed his transition from Tim Cook, emphasizing their conversations about the future and new opportunities. He highlighted Apple's design philosophy, where hardware and software teams collaborate closely, and described the iPhone Duo's design choices, including the whimsical opening animation and the Kids Cue feature using Peanuts characters to capture children's attention during photos. Ternus shared his personal passion for racing cars, inspired by his brother's Datsun 240Z. On AI, he argued Apple focuses on product over technology, integrating AI into existing products like Siri AI, which leverages Google's Gemini, with privacy built in so Apple cannot see user data. He expressed confidence in this user-centric approach despite AI's fast pace. Ternus also discussed new child safety tools developed with the American Academy of Pediatrics, improving on previous Screen Time features, and affirmed his commitment to preserving Apple's design-centric culture.
Key takeaways
Ternus confirmed Apple's AI focus is on personal, privacy-preserving experiences, not frontier models, with Siri AI using Google's Gemini technology.
Apple's new child safety tools, developed with the American Academy of Pediatrics, aim to make screen time management easier for parents.
The iPhone Duo's Kids Cue uses Peanuts characters like Snoopy to get children to look at the camera during photos.
Ternus emphasized that Apple's design process involves deep collaboration between hardware and software teams from the start.
He stated that Apple cannot see user data in Siri AI, as privacy is built into the system.
John Ternus is leading Apple into its next era. In September, Ternus took over as CEO as Tim Cook stepped down after 15 years in the role.
Hello and welcome to Apple Park. I am so...
He's now overseeing the launch of the iPhone Duo, Apple's first ever foldable phone, the most dramatic design change to the iPhone since its debut in 2007. And Apple is still finding its footing in the AI space, where the company's efforts have largely been overshadowed by its rivals' race toward super intelligence. Following this year's Apple keynote event, I spoke with John Ternus at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California.
You first joined Apple 25 years ago as a member of the product design team. You've been working with Tim for the last several months, maybe more for all we know, preparing for this transition. He really passed the baton to you this morning. What have you spent most of your time talking about these last few months?
Honestly, talking about the future, right? I mean, that's kind of what we do here. We're always — I mean, even today. Today is an amazing moment. We celebrate, tomorrow it's past, and we're on to the next thing. And yeah, just a lot of really wonderful conversations with Tim about, you know, where do we go from here and what new opportunities do we have. And it's been great.
Well, you know, it's funny because as a product designer — I'm a mechanical engineer by background — and the team that the product designers work most closely with are the industrial designers. So I've been working hand in hand with industrial designers at Apple since I started. And it's an amazing relationship. I think what's so special about this place is design is at the center of it. Like, design means everything to us. And what's incredible is our designers, both on the software side and the hardware side, they really understand the engineering. And the engineers have a very deep appreciation for design. And so it's a really powerful collaboration. It's not that a designer sketches something up and then throws it over the wall and says, 'Go make that.' It's from the very beginning the teams are collaborating, and it's just a wonderful thing to be a part of.
iPhone Duo brings an entirely new design while preserving everything you love and expect from iPhone. Can't wait to take it out and let me know.
When closed, the Duo is about the size of a passport, and when opened, it looks like a small tablet. The surface is made from a durable custom polymer and has a display engine that enables a seamless transition between its inner and outer screens. Apple hopes that users will find the phone as integral to their routines as they do other beloved Apple products.
How do you know when a design choice is genuinely contributing to the experience rather than simply calling attention to itself?
That's a good question. I think that comes from, again, the collaboration that we have, the cross-functional one, because everybody's kind of looking to solve these problems together. And first and foremost, we're focused on what is going to make this product better for the user, and that guides it. And so as long as you're thinking that way, then something that's frivolous or distracting isn't going to make things better for the user, and so we're not going to do that. So we focus on usefulness and utility and capability. But design helps make the experience better. And sometimes you just want a little whimsy. Like if you saw with the iPhone Duo, when you open it up, there's this beautiful animation as you open to the inner screen. That's not a functional thing, but it's something that just makes you feel good every time you see it.
Actually, I think one of my favorite things about it was the Kids Cue. And I don't even have kids. I think it actually might work on my dog, too, when I want him to look at the —
Ternus, J. (2026, October 20). Apple CEO John Ternus on the iPhone Duo, Apple Intelligence AI, and Apple's Next Big Thing [Interview transcript]. TIME. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3097800/
MLA
John Ternus. "Apple CEO John Ternus on the iPhone Duo, Apple Intelligence AI, and Apple's Next Big Thing." TIME, 20 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3097800/.
BibTeX
@misc{ternus2026_3097800,
author = {John Ternus},
title = {Apple CEO John Ternus on the iPhone Duo, Apple Intelligence AI, and Apple's Next Big Thing},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, TIME. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3097800/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
