Apple Execs Say Spatial Computing Is 'Inevitable' and AI Is a 'Marathon, Not a Sprint'

[MacRumors]

Apple hardware engineering chief John Ternus and marketing chief Greg Joswiak recently did an interview with Tom's Guide, where they shared new insights into the MacBook Neo, AI, and spatial computing.

Ternus and Joswiak made it clear that the MacBook Neo isn't your average low-cost device. Apple doesn't typically put a lot of focus on its more affordable devices, but marketing for the Neo has been expansive, and that's because Apple sees it as a "reinvention" of the entry-level laptop. From Ternus:

I think maybe another one from our past is this idea that Steve talked about is the Mac being the bicycle for the mind, right? And you know, from the very beginning, the vision was let's make personal computing as accessible to as many people as possible. And that was the mission of the MacBook Neo.

Ternus said the MacBook Neo required "building something completely new from the ground up" to provide customers with quality at a low price. "We never want to ship junk," he said. "We want to ship great products that have that Apple experience."

Joswiak said the MacBook Neo's quality was important to Apple, and the Neo's build sets it apart from competitors.

You know the products in this space that it's competing against. They're plastic, they're little, you can flex them. They're so cheap, because what have they done? They just tried to cut a nickel, cut a quarter, cut a dollar out of everything to try to make it cheaper, and as a result, they made it cheap, which is very different than making it a lower price and high value, which was the approach we were taking.

Along with discussing the Neo, Ternus and Joswiak talked about the differences between the iPad and the Mac. Ternus said that Apple isn't going to merge the products, and similarities are because Apple focuses on what would make a device better and not on how one product might impact another.

We're going to make the best iPad we can possibly make. We're going to make the best Mac we can possibly make. Some customer is going to choose one, some customer is going to choose the other. A lot of customers actually like to have both, and that's great too. So yeah, we never think about... there's never been this idea of mashing these two things together.

On AI, which is an area where Apple has been struggling, Joswiak said it's not a sprint.

We've been doing things with intelligence for many years, right? And gen AI allows us an opportunity to do that even more. So I'm excited about that, but boy, this is not a sprint. This is a marathon, right? We're going to be doing stuff with intelligence for decades, not months or years.

Joswiak dodged a question about a potential touchscreen MacBook Pro, which Apple is rumored to be working on for launch as soon as this year. He also declined to comment on smart glasses, but said we're in the "early innings of spatial computing," while Ternus said that combining the digital and physical world is an "inevitability." The two were tight-lipped about any upcoming Apple products, but Joswiak said Apple is "working on some pretty cool stuff."

The full interview, which goes into more detail on the MacBook Neo, AI, and includes a Steve Jobs anecdote, is well worth watching.

Article Link: Apple Execs Say Spatial Computing Is 'Inevitable' and AI Is a 'Marathon, Not a Sprint'

 

[caliguy]

A 16 year marathon since the release of Siri 🙃

 

[HouseLannister]

The Buddhist walk of peace was faster than Apple can run a marathon

 

[klasma]

Real innovation is the profit we made along the way.

 

[Mr_Ed]

He also declined to comment on smart glasses, but said we're in the "early innings of spatial computing,"

Translation: ‘Yeah, we still have no freaking idea how to make this useful.”

 

[now i see it]

"We never want to ship junk,"
but occasionally we do - i.e. the 2020 i3 MacBook Air

 

[Unregistered 4U]

"We never want to ship junk,"
but occasionally we do - i.e. the 2020 i3 MacBook Air

They could only ship what Intel made available. 🙂

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I’m still thinking that MacBook Pro rumor is a larger screened iPad. Especially if it’s going to be the only device that ships with that new chip.

 

[emulator]

They could only ship what Intel made available. 🙂

Keep blaming the chip.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Spatial computing might be the future, but AVP, or anything resembling it, won't be the device leading us there.

 

[CWallace]

Real innovation is the profit we made along the way.

If you're an Apple shareholder, you should arguably be happy that Apple has not sent the bulk of said profit to NVIDIA.

You look at "cutting edge" AI companies like Anthropic losing a hundred-billion plus a year via "wealth transfer" to the GPU and server hardware companies and yet still do not have a viable business model for all that spend.

 

[sw1tcher]

The two were tight-lipped about any upcoming Apple products, but Joswiak said Apple is "working on some pretty cool stuff."

Apple Maps with ads is not cool.

 

[sw1tcher]

"We never want to ship junk,"
but occasionally we do - i.e. the 2020 i3 MacBook Air

Butterfly keyboard
Magic Mouse with charging port on the bottom
iPhone Pocket

 

[platinumaqua]

Trying to save face because they have failed to accomplish what other companies have done with regards to AI.

Edit to add: what was quoted would be more genuine and less save-face had they not gave in to FOMO and attempted badly at implementing "AI" features for the past two years.

 

[klasma]

If you're an Apple shareholder, you should arguably be happy that Apple has not sent the bulk of said profit to NVIDIA.

I am (via ETFs), but I’d gladly give up that profit for devices with improving rather than degrading usability.

You look at "cutting edge" AI companies like Anthropic losing a hundred-billion plus a year via "wealth transfer" to the GPU and server hardware companies and yet still do not have a viable business model for all that spend.

Anthropic currently has the problem that they don’t have enough compute to serve all the customers they have. Meaning they could up their prices if they wanted to.

 

[boswald]

"We never want to ship junk,"
but occasionally we do - i.e. the 2020 i3 MacBook Air

I think the baseline 2018 Mac mini was pretty bad too: i3, 8GB RAM, Intel HD graphics, and BT issues galore.

 

[constantsnags!]

Translation: ‘Yeah, we still have no freaking idea how to make this useful.”

Nobody does. That’s why data centre builds are being cancelled.

 

[gaximus]

Hard to win a marathon when your walking and everyone else is running.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Hard to win a marathon when your walking and everyone else is running.

Start slow, finish strong. Nothing like passing people that zipped by at the start and cramped up before the end. 😀

 

[tennisproha]

Apple is largely right about the AI bubble. The problem is, lately when Apple does put out products and features, they're half-baked and full of bugs. Apple software is the weakest link and I'm surprised investors aren't calling for Craig Federighi's ouster.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Keep blaming the chip.

Why wouldn't we be blaming the chip? Have you seen the M1? And I just bought an i9 Lenovo Legion.

 

[Starfia]

Hard to win a marathon when your walking and everyone else is running.

I feel like there might have been some classic fable about that. But probably not.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Really easy to say this when they've had to license Gemini to replace Siri.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Keep blaming the chip.

The chip was supposed to have certain performance and thermals. Intel, knowing that no one ever leaves Intel, didn’t hit the targets. Apple could have NOT shipped it, sure, but in the end it’s all good that Intel failed because there’s much better solutions now as a result.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Spatial computing might be the future, but AVP, or anything resembling it, won't be the device leading us there.

Considering how every current device, including devices that shipped years earlier are adopting a hand tracking option (for some reason, not a requirement until after AVP shipped) and a UI that looks more like what Apple has popularized (some even straight up copying Apple’s icons), it’s quite literally the device leading us there.