Apple is at a transformational point in its product history. The company is making a record amount of money with a rich product portfolio, fumbled its AI strategy, and just had a leadership change.
Tim Cook is out as the CEO, and engineering veteran John Ternus is taking over the chief role. Interestingly, it seems Apple is also making the biggest shift in its product development history, with no less than ten categories of devices planned for the coming years.
What’s next from Apple?
It seems Apple planned the leadership change at a crucial point in its product development phase, with the focus being on Ternus delivering some knockout products early in his leadership tenure. According to Bloomberg, the first of these buzzy product reveals is going to be the iPhone Fold (or the iPhone Ultra), the first foldable smartphone by the company.
Apple is years late to the race, but the excitement around the upcoming “pocketable but not pocket-friendly” phone is pretty high. “Ternus is poised for an even bigger flood of products. Including the foldable iPhone, Apple will enter roughly 10 new product categories within the next few years. That means Ternus could quickly eclipse his predecessor by this measure,” says the report.
The launch of ten product categories is pretty ambitious, as Cook’s tenure only witnessed the launch of three new segments, two being mass-market wearables (AirPods and Apple Watch) and one XR hardware in the misfiring Vision Pro.
A truly transformational roadmap
Apple has played it relatively safe with its wearables, but it seems the company is going all-in across the board. Starting with the AirPods, the company is reportedly planning to launch a camera-equipped version, dramatically boosting their health potential as well as understanding of the world around them using multi-modal AI. Think of Visual Intelligence, but instead of pointing your iPhone’s camera, the earbuds in your ears do the job.
It’s an immensely promising idea that will also be pretty hard to execute. Yet, if products like the Meta-Ray Ban AI glasses are anything to go by, Apple can execute it. And it’s not an outlandish idea, either. Experts at the University of Washington recently showcased the VueBuds, packing cameras on off-the-shelf earbuds that are capable of world-understanding and assisting with translation, among other AI-powered tricks. And let’s not forget Apple’s partnership with Google, which essentially puts Gemini at the foundations of Apple’s AI revival plans.
Aside from the earbuds, the following is the list of other product categories that are reportedly in development at the company, many of which have been delayed due to Apple’s hobbled AI efforts:
- Smart home hub: It could end up looking like a small iPad, mounted on the wall, and serve as a hub for smart home controls and in-house communications.
- A robotic device aimed at the tabletop market: Imagine an iPad mounted atop a stand with a speaker base. A subsequent version with robotic arms is also said to be in the pipeline.
- Security gear: Apple is reportedly eyeing a Ring-like camera-equipped device with a few other intelligence sensors onboard.
- Next-gen MacBook Pro: A fresh design tagging alongside OLED display with touch-screen support, a first for Apple.
- Foldable iPad: Following the foldable iPad, Apple could give a similar flexible screen treatment to its tablet.
- Smart glasses: Apple’s debut glasses will broadly follow in the footsteps of Meta-Ray Ban, but down the road, glasses with a built-in display unit could also hit the shelves.
- Pendant: Plenty of attempts out there, but it seems Apple’s AI wearable could push the category into the mainstream.
