Apple Says iPhone Is Here to Stay for Next 50 Years And Beyond
In an interview last year, Apple SVP Eddy Cue said we might not need an iPhone ten years from now.
Apple executives have long spoken about the company’s future growth, but recent comments from Eddy Cue on the iPhone’s relevance appear to have prompted a response from marketing chief Greg Joswiak.
In an interview last year, Cue said we might not need an iPhone ten years from now. “You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds. The only way you truly have true competition is when you have technology shifts. Technology shifts create these opportunities,” said Cue, stressing that artificial intelligence could drive a new shift in the world of technology, minimising the role of smartphones—an iPhone in this case—and creating opportunities for new forms of devices.
What Cue said is not logically wrong. Over the past few months, atypical devices, which cannot be categorised as smartphones, such as the AI Humane Pin, a wearable screenless AI assistant, have come up. However, these devices have yet to undermine the utility of smartphones. And, while Cue’s statement did not imply the end of iPhones, Joswiak felt the need to clear the air.
He told Wired that it would be hard to imagine that we wouldn’t still be using iPhones even 50 years from now. “The iPhone is not going to go away. iPhone is going to serve a very central role in any of those things you’re talking about,” Joz said, referring to the technological shifts AI might bring about in the future. He asserted that an iPhone would be as capable as it is today to handle AI-induced changes.
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“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that nothing you just said is incompatible with the iPhone.”
Joswiak’s statement is not the only counter to Cue’s prediction. Apple CEO Cook corroborated the sentiment, adding that the company will continue to be led by humans, not AI executives. “When you look at the leadership page, there will not be an agentic kind of model on there,” Cook said.