Jony Ive is back, and this time he does not want to redesign an iPhone, but completely break with everything we understand by a mobile device and, consequently, an iPhone. The legendary Apple designer, responsible for the iconic aspect of the IMAC, the iPhone and the Apple Watch, is working on a project that could change the rules of the game in the world of technology.
The idea is something that had never been on the table in Apple's offices, and it is an “iPhone” without a screen.
Device based on joint intelligence
The startup is called IO Productsand it is the result of the collaboration between Ive and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAi. Both have been developing devices based on artificial intelligence with a radically different approach for more than a year. It would not be a telephone to use, but not an intelligent speaker. According to sources close to the project, it would focus on the voice interactionwithout screen need, and with artificial intelligence as a nucleus. Something like talking with the future, literally.
The most striking thing is that OpenAi is valuing to buy The startup for a figure that would exceed 500 million dollars. A huge amount for a company that has not yet presented a product to the public, but that demonstrates the interest of the market for the convergence between hardware and advanced AI models. The agreement, as revealed The Informationwould imply that OpenAi contributes its technology, which IO Products It is responsible for the development of the hardware, and that the Lovefrom Design study, founded by IVE after leaving Apple in 2019, in a form to the final product.
Although many insist that “it is not a phone,” the truth is that it is intended to replace functions that so far we associated exclusively to the smartphone. And there lies its potential. Instead of a screen, notifications and applications, this new device would bet on a conversational interfacein the style of what Openai has already implemented in Chatgpt with its voice mode. But taken to another level, with a minimalist, intuitive and possibly portable design.
The team behind the project is also formed by former Apple designers such as Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, key pieces in the development of emblematic products of the IVE era. Emerson Collective is also involved, the organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, which acts as one of the main investors.
I would not have Apple Intelligence
All this is part of a context of maximum competition. The great technological, such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Anthropic or XAI (owned by Elon Musk), are running to dominate the next generation of intelligent attendees, capable of having natural conversations, executing complex tasks and learning from each interaction. But none has still raised this type: designing a New type of devicefrom scratch, for that conversational.
Are we facing the beginning of the end of the smartphone as we know it? It is soon to say it, but if someone can shape that transition, it is Jony Ive. He already put his part to turn the phone into an extension of our body.
The idea may seem utopian, and it is true, but also the iPhone seemed in 2007 when it presented a physical without physical keyboard.
