VP Hardware Engineering, Apple
What Makes the New iPhone 17 so Special? Interview w/ John Ternus
I had the opportunity to speak with John Ternus Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering about the new iPhone Air, iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro lineup.
About John Ternus
John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, delivered the keynote address at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science’s undergraduate commencement ceremony on May 20, 2024. Ternus, a 1997 graduate of Penn Engineering, spoke about his career and offered advice to graduates. He stated that he was initially unsure he belonged at Apple, but said he was grateful he was not afraid to ask for help. He advised graduates to “always assume you’re as smart as anyone else in the room, but never assume that you know as much as they do,” describing this as a way to find confidence while maintaining humility. During the address, Ternus also discussed Apple’s environmental efforts, saying the company is “pretty good at making products that our customers love” and that employees “work hard to lead with our values.” He noted that Apple is carbon neutral for its own operations and is working toward a goal set by CEO Tim Cook to become carbon neutral across its entire supply chain by 2030.
Transcript (17 segments)
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John Ternus0:00
You know, this was a moment for us to really rethink the iPhone lineup. That allowed us to push the Pro phones to be even more pro. Last year, we wouldn't have had the pieces to build this product and now we do. How can we make it better and not just in one little bit here, like let's make it better across the board. Well, thank you so much for having me. Thanks for coming.
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Interviewer0:16
Absolutely. Pleasure to be here and congratulations on such an incredible lineup. Really excited. Speaking of the line, I would love to actually kick off with the iPhone lineup if that's okay. Obviously, there's a lot of design changes and I would love to see or hear what was your favorite part being able to start fresh almost and with a clean canvas.
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John Ternus0:34
You know, this was a moment for us to, I think Tim even mentioned it in the keynote, to really rethink the iPhone lineup, right? And obviously kind of the new part there is the iPhone Air. So, bringing in a completely new phone where we could bring the pro phone experience and capabilities to people in a completely new form factor that's pretty mind-blowing. It just disappears into your pocket, super thin and light. But by doing that, that allowed us, it kind of gave us the freedom to push the Pro phones to be even more pro, right? So, more performance, better cameras, better battery life, you know, super durable, all of these things. And so, I think having that opportunity and then on the iPhone 17, we were able to really make an amazing upgrade, right? It's got a ProMotion display. It now starts at 256 gigs. They all have this incredible Center Stage front-facing camera, which I think is an amazing feature. So yeah, it's just been really fun to kind of just in one moment, boom, here's the new iPhone lineup. I think it's very cool.
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Interviewer1:26
No, I mean, it was really exciting to see it live. So, that was really great. As you probably remember, I'm an FPV drone pilot, so I sometimes decide to strap one of these iPhones to the drone and capture content with it.
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John Ternus1:36
Think how much longer you're going to be able to fly with it.
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Interviewer1:37
I know exactly. That's where I was going with this. And the fact that they're so durable is obviously amazing. And usually I'm worried that if I crash, I break the drone, not the phone. What goes into the thought process when you choose the right materials to be able to have such a durable device?
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John Ternus1:54
Yeah. Well, I think you know what we try to do as we're designing products is we spend a lot of time on materials, on material science, material development. It's both the selection of materials also in many cases the development of custom materials. And so we try to pick the right material for the particular application. So, you know, you're holding the iPhone Air. Given how thin it is, the strength we could get from titanium and that thin band around the perimeter was really critical to make it strong enough. And then obviously there's a lot of exposed glass or in this case glass ceramic. And so we put Ceramic Shield on the back and the front for the first time, putting it on the back. And all of those things combined actually resulted in a phone that's more durable than any previous iPhone, which is pretty amazing given how thin it is. So yeah, it's pretty amazing.
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Interviewer2:39
Were there any challenges to be able to pack such a powerhouse into such a small footprint?
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John Ternus2:43
Yeah, I think in a way this phone is the culmination of a long journey of building the core technologies that we needed to make it happen. So if you think about Apple silicon, right, you need an incredibly efficient silicon story to be able to have great battery life, which this phone does in such a thin form factor. And so we obviously have our A19 Pro, but now of course with C1X and with N1, like it's really so much Apple silicon technology in there. And then, you know, examples like the main logic board is the most densely packed main logic board we've ever put in a phone. We did that because we really wanted to push everything up into that plateau and just leave all that extra space for battery. So it was truly an exercise in efficiency and miniaturization to make it possible. And I think, you know, several years ago, we just wouldn't have had the pieces. Last year, we wouldn't have had the pieces to build this product, and now we do. And so, it's always fun when you can kind of finally pull all those things together.
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Interviewer3:38
Yeah, of course. Totally. Was it similar when it comes to the AirPods Pro 3 with the form factor, being able to pack so much power into it?
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John Ternus3:45
Yeah. It's just getting more and more capable in terms of miniaturization, right? And you know, AirPods Pro 2 was such a well-loved product. It's such a great product. And so, we came into this saying, how can we make it better? And not just in one little bit here, like let's make it better across the board. And I think that's what you've seen with AirPods Pro 3. It has better fit, better stability, better battery life, better sound quality, way better ANC, right? I mean, all of the things. And so really proud of the way the team's kind of rallied together to find all of that and do all that work. But it's hard.
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Interviewer4:17
Congrats. I mean, you did a great job at this. When it comes to the front-facing Center Stage camera, something I'm really excited about. I mean, you'll be able to shoot at 18 megapixel, I believe. And being able to hold the phone basically, yeah, vertically, but shoot landscape. Exactly. Which is great. What were the hardware optimizations that had to take place to be able to offer something so revolutionary to the phone?
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John Ternus4:40
Well, this is one of these great kind of Apple examples of hardware and software and design working together. Everything coming together. So, at its core, it's this bigger square sensor, right? And by virtue of being a square sensor, that gives us the ability to take that landscape shot when you're holding it in portrait or vice versa. But then it's like, okay, but how is that going to work? And so that's when our software and design and hardware teams come in and come up with these really elegant interfaces that allow you to quickly, you know, switch between or to just let the intelligence of the system switch and put you into that landscape mode. So all those things come together to make, I think this is going to be like a super popular feature.
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Interviewer5:20
Absolutely. I mean, I tend to use the native iPhone camera app when I post to social media, especially when I do any sort of like selfie stuff. So, I think to be able to shoot in landscape whilst holding vertically and make more out of the camera is incredible.
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John Ternus5:34
Yeah, because that vertical grip is just a lot more secure for them and so we know people like to hold it that way, but sometimes you want a landscape photo, so now you don't have to choose.
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Interviewer5:42
Well, thank you so much, John. I really appreciate your time today. This is amazing. And hopefully I get to see you again next year.
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John Ternus5:47
Sounds good. We'll be here. Thank you so much. Pleasure. Thank you.