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One of Apple’s most senior execs has suggested its most popular product may be obsolete within a decade.
"You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds," Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of services, testified during a trial to determine penalties in Google's search-related antitrust case. "The only way you truly have true competition is when you have technology shifts. Technology shifts create these opportunities. AI is a new technology shift, and it’s creating new opportunities for new entrants."
As Bloomberg reports, this is the first time a public figure within Apple has alluded to the end of the iPhone due to AI. Cue doesn’t know what will eventually replace the iPhone, but he's clear the company needs to stay open to future possibilities.
One of the “best things” Apple has ever done is make the iPod obsolete, he said. “We killed the iPod ourselves with the iPhone," said Cue. "Most companies have a very difficult time killing themselves when new technology comes along because you're afraid, why would you kill the golden goose, in a sense. And so, what I see generally is new technologies come about, new companies get formed, the incumbents have a hard time with it.”
The iPod was first introduced in 2001 and Apple discontinued them in 2022. The final model was the 2019 iPod touch, which with its display and access to the App Store worked in a very similar way to an iPhone but with limited connectivity options.
Of course, executives testifying in these courts are trying their best not to make their companies sound like behemoths that need regulating (and breaking up). And the iPhone is still a cash cow. In Apple's financial results for Q2 2025, the first three months of the year, 49.1% of the company's $95.4 billion revenue came directly from the iPhone. That period saw the company introduce the iPhone 16e, its new entry-level iPhone.
Services made up a large percentage of Apple's revenue, growing to almost 28%, but that's still a far cry from the money the company makes from iPhone sales.
Cue also revealed that Apple is exploring alternatives to Google Search within Safari. He confirmed the company has had conversations with AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Perplexity. He says Apple is keeping its options open and it is preparing to "make sure we have the capability to switch if we have to."