Apple’s Most Ambitious Roadmap Ever? + OpenAI vs. Google vs. Anthropic Revisited

Summary of Apple’s Most Ambitious Roadmap Ever? + OpenAI vs. Google vs. Anthropic Revisited

by Alex Kantrowitz

1h 1m•September 9, 2026
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Overview of Apple’s Most Ambitious Roadmap Ever? + OpenAI vs. Google vs. Anthropic Revisited

Alex Kantrowitz and M.G. Siegler spend most of the episode on two big themes: Apple’s apparent shift from incremental hardware updates to a much more aggressive product roadmap, and the evolving AI competition between OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The conversation frames Apple as entering a new era under John Ternus, with a foldable iPhone, touchscreen MacBooks, and smart-home products signaling a far more risk-taking company than the one that has dominated the last decade with refined, conservative launches.

Apple’s Big Moment: A More Ambitious Product Strategy

The foldable iPhone is the centerpiece

  • Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports Apple is preparing its first foldable iPhone, widely viewed as the headline product of the event.
  • The device is expected to:
    • Use a “passport-style” folded design
    • Include a large interior screen and small external display
    • Support Touch ID
    • Offer split-view multitasking
    • Feature an improved hinge and a less-visible crease
    • Cost around $2,000+

Why Apple may succeed where others already tried

  • Siegler argues Apple is late, but likely well-positioned:
    • Foldables have matured in the market through Samsung, Google, Motorola, and others.
    • Apple can bring polish, ecosystem integration, and retail strength.
    • The form factor sounds better suited to real-world use than some earlier foldables.
  • He expects the phone to be a hit despite its premium price.

The “mullet iPhone” idea

  • The hosts describe the foldable as:
    • “All business” when folded
    • A “party” device when unfolded
  • Likely use cases:
    • Folded: texting, email, calls, quick tasks
    • Unfolded: YouTube, Netflix, reading, multitasking, travel use
  • The episode frames it as especially appealing for business travelers and people who want a phone-plus-tablet experience in one device.

What Makes This a Strategic Apple Shift

The move raises average selling price

  • Apple has long used Pro and Pro Max models to lift the iPhone’s average selling price.
  • A foldable at $2,000+ would push ASP even higher.
  • That matters for Wall Street and for Ternus’s early tenure.

It fits the Tim Cook-to-John Ternus transition

  • Cook is being positioned to hand off a company with:
    • Strong product momentum
    • A broad pipeline of new devices
    • A chance to show continued growth under new leadership
  • The hosts suggest Cook has deliberately “teed up” Ternus with a strong roadmap.

Risks and challenges

  • Apple will need to prove:
    • Battery life
    • Hinge quality
    • Durability
    • Whether the crease is truly minimized
  • AppleCare and repairs will likely become a bigger selling point because foldables are inherently more delicate.
  • There may also be supply constraints at launch.

John Ternus’s Job Description: Sell iPhones, Then Everything Else

Apple’s new CEO faces a different kind of pressure

  • The episode stresses that Ternus’s top priority is simple but crucial: sell iPhones.
  • Strong iPhone sales fuel:
    • Services revenue
    • Investor confidence
    • The rest of Apple’s product flywheel

Cook is still deeply involved

  • Even as executive chairman, Cook is expected to remain highly active.
  • The hosts point out that his compensation package suggests he’ll still be heavily involved in major strategic issues, especially:
    • Supply chain
    • Geopolitics
    • Handling major macro-level business risks

A major external headwind: component costs

  • Apple is facing memory and component cost inflation.
  • This could complicate Ternus’s launch if margins get squeezed at the exact moment he takes over.

Other Apple Products Coming Into View

New Pro iPhones

  • The Pro models are expected to look similar, with upgrades mostly under the hood:
    • A20 Pro chip
    • NLC2 modem
    • Better battery life
    • Vapor chamber cooling
    • Camera improvements, including a mechanical aperture on the Pro Max

Touchscreen MacBook Pro

  • Apple is reportedly finally moving toward a touchscreen MacBook Pro with:
    • OLED display
    • Multi-touch support
    • Dynamic Island-style UI elements
  • This could blur the line between Mac and iPad, and the hosts note it may be a marketing challenge after years of Apple saying it would never do this.

Smart-home hub with a screen

  • Apple is also preparing a home hub with:
    • A roughly 7-inch square display
    • Siri and AI features
    • Facial recognition for personalized content
    • Wall-mounted or nightstand configurations
    • Smart home controls, FaceTime, widgets, and clock faces
  • The product may be called something like “HomePad” in the rumor mill.
  • The hosts see it as Apple’s biggest push yet into the smart home.

Apple’s 2027+ Roadmap: A More Experimental Company

Future products mentioned

  • AirPods with cameras
  • In-home security sensors
  • Smart glasses
  • A tabletop robot version of the smart hub
  • A pendant with a camera for AI

Main takeaway

  • Apple now looks willing to take more product risks than it has in years.
  • The episode suggests this may be driven by:
    • The AI era forcing faster experimentation
    • Apple’s hardware advantage
    • Its unmatched retail distribution
    • A desire to expand beyond “safer” iterative upgrades

OpenAI vs. Google vs. Anthropic: The Competitive Landscape

Google: maybe shifting away from the frontier race

  • The hosts discuss reporting that Google DeepMind may no longer be functioning as a true frontier lab.
  • A recent leadership change involving Demis Hassabis is seen as evidence of internal repositioning.
  • The theory: Google may be prioritizing:
    • Google Cloud
    • TPU commercialization
    • The broader platform layer over frontier-model leadership

OpenAI: back in the hype cycle

  • OpenAI’s latest release is being framed as a comeback moment.
  • The hosts say “AGI” is now basically a marketing term:
    • OpenAI can use it more freely now that its Microsoft deal no longer includes the old AGI clause
    • Jensen Huang and others are also using the term loosely
  • The concern: if “AGI” is declared too casually, the public may grow numb or skeptical.

Anthropic: strong position, especially ahead of IPO

  • Anthropic remains strong, especially in coding and enterprise use cases.
  • The hosts expect an IPO filing soon and think Anthropic may need a major product or publicity moment to maximize momentum before going public.
  • The competitive battle is increasingly as much about narrative and timing as model quality.

Broader industry pattern

  • The episode suggests the AI race is becoming less linear:
    • Some companies are stepping back from frontier-model leadership
    • Others are leaning into cloud/platform economics
    • Public-market pressure is starting to shape the story

Key Takeaways

  • Apple is entering a genuinely new product phase, not just a yearly iPhone refresh cycle.
  • The foldable iPhone could be Apple’s most important hardware launch in years, even at a premium price.
  • John Ternus inherits a strong pipeline but also rising component costs and big expectations.
  • Apple’s roadmap suggests a broader push into smart home, wearables, and new form factors.
  • In AI, Google may be pivoting toward infrastructure, OpenAI is leaning into aggressive hype, and Anthropic is balancing momentum with an impending IPO.