Apple CEO John Ternus, alongside vide president of industrial design Molly Anderson, shows off the new iPhone Duo (Photo by Karl Mondon / AFP via Getty Images)
With this week’s “Surprise And Shine” event, Apple has unveiled not only its latest products but also a roadmap through the end of 2026 and beyond. The iPhone Duo stole the show from the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max; new CEO John Ternus was under the spotlight, and a raft of accessories has refreshed Apple’s ecosystem. Let’s take a closer look at some of those moments and what they say about Apple in 2026.
The New Guy Has A New Way Of Doing Things
John Ternus broke from corporate showmanship with his engineering-first style.
Surprise And Shine was the first time the public saw John Ternus in CEO mode. While the transition from Tim Cook has been intricately planned and telegraphed, the tone was different. Not in a huge way; the slick, pre-recorded, and highly edited videos were still present, and all the clichés and favorite phrases were there, in a way that only Apple can deliver.
Yet Ternus brought a more engineering-first style than Cook’s more corporate tone. In part, that will be down to having a brand new form factor to introduce in the iPhone Duo, but Ternus’s guidance on the presentation will reflect his own style; a style that will flow from the CEO office throughout Apple.
Someone In Cupertino Likes The Microsoft Surface Duo
Apple’s design and UI choices for the iPhone Duo echo the Surface Duo.
The dormant Duo community quickly pointed out the foldable Surface Duo’s echoes in the iPhone Duo. Microsoft’s foldable took a more traditional approach, with two flat screens separated by a hinge. This allowed 360 degrees of unfolding, but it left a physical gap between the displays. That subtly changed the UI into effectively two apps running side by side, both in a relatively normal aspect ratio.
It’s an approach that’s more comfortable in a widescreen format than the square format of current Android foldables, and one adopted by Android-powered tablets and the wider display of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 this summer.
I’ve no doubt the iPhone Duo will be heralded as a new way of working with a foldable smartphone, and I’ve no doubt the Surface fans will point incredulously to the Duo suffix and go “it’s not new!” But it will sell, and that’s perhaps the biggest difference between the discontinued Surface and the soon-to-be-on-sale iPhone.
Android Manufacturers Are Going To Have A Problem Come March
Delaying the iPhone 18 to Spring 2027 will challenge Android launches at MWC.
Since the launch of the Pro models, Apple has launched both standard vanilla iPhone models and iPhone Pro models. Not in 2026. Indications suggest the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18 Air will arrive, but not until Spring 2027. That’s the same window as the iPhone E mid-range models. It’s also the same window many Android manufacturers use for their mid-range summer models, which they can launch at the annual Mobile World Congress show in March.
Story Continues
What was a free hit for Android, even with competition from fellow manufacturers, now has to contend not just with a potential iPhone 18e, but with the full weight of the iPhone 18 and iPhone Air, which will take up media discussion, retail shelf space, and mobile network advertising spend.
Apple Is Insulated From Smartphone Price Rise Sticker Shock
iPhone 18 Pro price rises confirm market expectations of price inflation.
Across-the-board price rises have hit global smartphone sales as consumers deal with higher prices and shuffled specifications to protect manufacturers’ margins. It’s been painful for all in the current economy. Apple’s customers face a rise of $100 not just on the new handsets, but on the existing iPhone 16 and 17 models still on sale.
It’s an expected move from Apple, following similar price rises by other smartphone manufacturers. Anyone watching the supply chains will have known this was coming. By launching the iPhone 18 Pro family later in the year than other flagships, the sticker shock on smartphones was absorbed by the competition. In consumers’ eyes, Apple has no choice but to raise iPhone prices.
Google Is Winning The Mobile AI Paradigm
Apple’s reliance on Google’s AI cloud infrastructure highlights an ongoing disadvantage.
Apple has struggled to match Google Gemini since launching Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024. The hardware and software package is there, but the real loss is in the marketing. Gemini is highly visible and used as a key feature not just for Pixel devices but in the wider smartphone market. Gemini can deliver what people expect from AI.
Apple’s closed ecosystem gives it advantages in applying its own definition, but Apple’s move to use Google’s AI technology points to the latter’s vision of AI. Apple will use its own servers and take responsibility for user data security, but Mountain View still holds the AI high ground.
The Hidden Innovation That Benefits Consumers
The A20 Pro chipset is the industry’s first mobile processor fabricated on TSMC’s 2nm process.
While many will look at the iterative approach of the core iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch, and AirPods releases, the Apple Silicon A20 shows where Apple is innovating. It’s the first smartphone chipset to use TSMC’s 2nm process. Apple has stated a forty per cent performance gain over last year’s A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro, but many will wait for independent benchmarks at the end of the month to confirm just how much extra power Apple has unlocked
That power is likely to be offered first to the hardware for more performance – especially in local AI processing- but there will be battery life improvements thanks to the more efficient
One More Thing Is No Longer A Cultural Milestone
Apple’s traditional moment is no longer a surprise but an awkward obligation.
Steve Jobs would have a flourish at the end of several of his keynotes. When it all felt over, he would turn back to the audience and utter “there’s one more thing” before pulling out a near-secret project to the audience. That could be the first MacBook Air being slid out of an envelope, the first public FaceTime call, or the reveal of the first iPod Shuffle hiding in that unused pocket of a pair of Levi jeans.
John Ternus got his “one more thing” this week, yet everyone knew that it had to be the foldable iPhone. Discussed for years, leaked in-depth, and conspicuously missing from the rest of the show, it felt like a tribute band being forced back on stage to play an awkwardly placed version of Freeboard that would have been better suited earlier in the setlist.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are available to pre-order now. Forbes contributor David Phelan has all the details.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com