New CEO John Ternus believes Apple should get designs right rather than launch early or emulate rivals, and the iPhone Duo is an example of that.
Ternus was named as Tim Cook's successor in April 2026, around 25 years after he first joined the company. But after just 10 years, he was already involved in what would become the iPhone Duo.
Speaking to Time magazine, he said that he and five fellow engineers had even filed a patent for foldable devices in 2011. "It felt clear that we were going to eventually get to a place where OLED displays were going to be flexible."
Before that led to the launch of the iPhone Duo, though, Samsung and many other rivals beat Apple to market. Yet Ternus wasn't concerned, saying that the "other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy."
This determination to just get it right first is backed up by Richard Dinh, Apple's vice president of product design, who told the publication that Apple could have launched sooner.
While Dinh would not say when it could have brought out a foldable iPhone, he does say that he specifically talked with Ternus about it because of how rivals were already launching. Apple had a foldable with a top surface similar to those of rivals, and while he says it had flaws, Dinh thought it might be good enough.
iPhone Duo's final glass layers
"[But Ternus] was like, 'Look, Rich, you'll know when it's the right thing,'" said Dinh. "And that gave us the confidence to really push the boundaries on innovation and manufacturing, and fly worldwide to connect our suppliers together and come up with the nanotexture [surface]."
Apple doesn't do everything
It may take its time entering new markets, and Apple has a reputation for wanting to build everything itself, but Ternus doesn't agree with that. Nor does he think everything Apple does works right away.
For instance, he says that he used Screen Time with his own children and found it to be "good but not great." Naturally, he says now that the updates are better.
"[We wanted] to build tools that make that really easy for parents," he continued. "And I think we've done just that."
As for owning the whole stack from software down to every hardware component, Ternus believes in controlling what you can control. "There's not really a goal that we have to make every single thing in a product," he says. "We make the things where we can really bring differentiation."
"You can't do everything," he stresses. "So we kind of try to constrain ourselves to the stuff that matters most — and then put all of our effort into those things."
Apple's new Siri AI aside, there has been a perception that one of the things the company can't do is compete with its rivals in AI. Ternus didn't directly address that, but repeats Apple's position that with its privacy and ecosystem, it has an advantage.
"Everything in your life is on your phone," he says. "With Siri AI, you can leverage all that information to do things, learn things, and figure out things in a way that nobody else can do."
Ternus also believes in the longevity of the iPhone and hardware in general, and not in everybody talking to AI to accomplish everything.
"People want physical things," he says. "They want to talk, to see images of loved ones, to take pictures."
"So I don't see a scenario where all of a sudden, our devices disappear and we don't have a need for an iPhone," he concludes.
Being CEO
Ternus has this long history with Apple hardware, but now that he's CEO, he has to deal with so much more. And that includes politics.
John Ternus (left) and his predecessor Tim Cook - image credit: Apple.
Apple has recently been criticized for wanting to buy processors and memory from Chinese manufacturers. Ternus sticks by that, though, arguing that the "constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis."
"So our fundamental belief is that all options should be on the table," he says.
Perhaps more contentiously, his predecessor was robustly criticized for his dealings with Trump, from personally donating to the inauguration, and for presenting him with a random trophy.
Ternus has now met with members of the current administration. He says he's done this to "make sure we're kind of working through things together."
There were no more details, but Ternus also pointed to how Tim Cook is staying on at the company as Executive Chairman. "He has great relationships and loves Apple," says Ternus, "so wherever he can help, he is happy to help."
