In a new interview, Apple CEO John Ternus talks about the long road to the iPhone Duo, while Joz is delighted just how secret they kept the project.
It had been rumored for such a long time, and so many leaks got little details right, but overall the iPhone Duo has been Apple's best-kept secret in years. Talking to Tom's Guide and TechRadar in a new interview, Greg Joswiak, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, says he's "super proud" of that.
"We put extra security on it, we didn't talk about it to anyone," he said. "We had a very funny codename, which I won't even repeat, that had nothing to do with it."
"People knew through leaks that we were working on a foldable [and] unfortunately they got the aspect ratio," he continued, "[but] this is one, we said, okay, we're gonna really keep this one locked down, and it worked."
New Apple CEO John Ternus says that there came a point in all of the design work when Apple thought "yes, that's it."
"This is what happens, we always know we're on the right track when you get that first design model or prototype and you go, oh, this is it, right?" said Ternus. "This is what I want. And then once we have that, then it's like, okay, how do we make it happen and make it real?"
Part of making it real, though, did involve talking to people outside of Apple. "We went out a little bit broader than we might normally in reaching out to our third-party developers," said Joz, "to have them do some work as to how they are going to take advantage of [the iPhone Duo]."
"We had no problem getting anybody to come in and want to do this," he continued. "There was a lot of enthusiasm."
The first $2,000 iPhone
AppleInsider has used the new iPhone Duo in person and couldn't really be more enthusiastic about it. But there is still the fact that it is the most expensive iPhone ever made.
"Look, we're always focused on, obviously, building cool things that people love, but also are really good value, right?" said Ternus. "And this is an incredibly, like, complex and well-engineered device."
"So far the response suggests [that] a lot of people are really excited about it, but one of the great things about our lineup now is that there's kind of different devices for different people's priorities," he continued.
Speaking to this point of the price and the value, Joz had the straightforward answer that iPhone Duo is both an iPhone and an iPad.
"I mean, it's called iPhone Duo for a reason... it is, like, two products, right?" he said. "It's like your iPhone, your familiar experience that you're used to, [but] open it up to this massive display, and it's a whole new experience, a whole new world."
Both men also enthused about the new iPhone 18 Pro and how that will be the right model for some people. Read AppleInsider's breakdown of the benefits and disadvantages of both the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro.
