Apple’s new CEO is reviving a Steve Jobs strategy from 25 years ago

John Ternus used his inaugural keynote as Apple’s chief executive to make a clear case for the iPhone as the company’s central product for the AI era. He framed the device as the most appropriate personal hub for intelligent, on-device experiences and positioned it at the core of Apple’s strategic direction moving forward.

The message was also a rebuttal to recent commentary suggesting smartphones are losing relevance. Under Tim Cook, Apple spent considerable effort convincing investors that the company’s future did not rest solely on the iPhone; Ternus’ opening remarks instead leaned into the device’s continuing primacy rather than downplaying it.

The argument echoes a playbook Steve Jobs used in 2001, when he cast the Mac as a "digital hub" for emerging consumer electronics and confronted claims that the personal computer was past its peak. Jobs later introduced the iPod that year as a product that complemented and extended the Mac’s role—an example of using a central platform to unify new devices and services.

Ternus stressed concrete attributes that he says make the iPhone well suited for that hub role: advanced processing power, better cameras, always-on networking, and on-device AI capabilities. The combination of high compute capability and portability, he argued, gives the iPhone an enduring advantage that competing wearables and form factors have so far failed to displace. Whether Apple will introduce any new, iPod-like hardware to further lock in the iPhone’s hub status remains unknown, but Ternus’ keynote left little doubt about his immediate confidence in the phone’s future.