By Desire Emmanuel with Agency Reports
John Ternus has entered his second week as Apple’s chief executive and the company has revealed the first major change to the iPhone since it was released almost 20 years ago, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported.
Ternus, who took on Apple’s top job after Tim Cook stepped down, was onstage on Wednesday at the company’s annual product release event in front of huge images of the first foldable iPhone.
With a book-style format, the new iPhone, dubbed the Duo, is the largest ever size of the product. And with a starting price of $2,000 going up to $3,200, it is also the most expensive.
Ternus said the Duo was “inspired by the iPad” but called the folding features “fluid and completely intuitive.”
The foldable phone has been a work-in-progress inside Apple for several years.
When unfolded, the new Duo has the look of a small iPad. When folded in half, it has the look of a wider iPhone.
Ternus said during the event that Apple wanted to avoid the look and feel of other foldable smart phones on the market, which he said “feel like two phones stuck together… making a larger screen feel much smaller.”
The Duo, he said, is the “result of a series of remarkable innovations that we think will redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.”
Ternus was directly involved in developing the foldable iPhone as he spent many years as a top executive inside Apple’s hardware division before being tapped earlier this year as Cook’s successor.
Ben Wood, chief analyst at technology research firm FDM, said it was likely Ternus’s promotion was timed specifically “to coincide with what will be arguably one of the biggest iPhone launches for many years”.
“Nothing happens by accident at Apple,” Wood added.
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies who attended the Wednesday presentation, said the spotlight on Ternus made it feel “almost like he was a product himself.”
