Update, 17 October: iPhone Duo pre-orders opened on 16 October from $1,999, and within about half an hour Apple’s US store was quoting January 25, 2027 for every configuration, according to Macworld’s live blog. Apple called demand “nothing short of extraordinary.” Details below.
Apple CEO John Ternus told TIME that “the constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis,” adding: “So our fundamental belief is that all options should be on the table.” TIME’s profile, published on 15 October 2026 as part of its Best Inventions of 2026, reports the remark in the context of a Financial Times report that Apple had begun testing memory chips made by a Chinese company.
TIME says Ternus took over as CEO on 1 September, and Apple’s leadership page lists him as CEO and Tim Cook as Executive Chair. The profile centres on the Duo, Apple’s foldable iPhone, which TIME describes as a “$1,999-and-up phone”.
Business Pill · SWITCHING COSTS
A one-minute explainer of switching costs: why it is hard to leave a supplier once you depend on it. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about any company in this story.
The key insight: As we read it, Ternus describes one rule for both chips and AI: Apple sources what it does not need to own, Gemini technology inside Siri included, and he puts memory supply in the same frame, saying all options should be on the table.
TIME writes that the global shortage of memory chips “has raised costs and delayed production timelines.”
According to TIME, the Financial Times reported in July that Apple had begun testing memory chips made by a Chinese company as a way to increase supply. TIME says that “drew a swift rebuke from a bipartisan group of Senators,” who wrote to Apple that doing so would imperil national security.
TIME says “Ternus pushes back on that idea.” “The constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis,” he told the magazine in the second of two interviews during September. “So our fundamental belief is that all options should be on the table.”
Apple CEO John Ternus told TIME that “the constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis” and that “all options should be on the table,” after, TIME reports, senators objected to Apple testing Chinese-made memory chips; TIME puts the Duo at $1,999 and up and Apple at 2.5 billion active devices (TIME, 15 Oct 2026).
What Was Posted on X
Wow $AAPL new foldable iPhone Duo sold out within minutes of preorders opening with delivery estimates now pushed nearly two months out to mid-December.
Looks like Apple may finally have a reason for people to upgrade their iPhones again.
Investor account @StockSavvyShay posted on 16 October that the iPhone Duo sold out within minutes of pre-orders opening, with delivery estimates pushed to mid-December. Macworld’s live blog logged December 15-22 at 8:21 a.m. Eastern; US quotes later moved to January 25, as the 17 October update below sets out.
Apple’s AI: Build Some, Source Some
TIME reports that the new Siri, which launched in the U.S. in September, “is powered by an Apple AI model that leverages Google’s Gemini technology.”
Ternus rejected the idea that this is a retreat from Apple’s philosophy of owning the whole product. “There’s not really a goal that we have to make every single thing in a product,” he told TIME. “We make the things where we can really bring differentiation.”
On what the AI is for, he said: “Everything in your life is on your phone.” And: “With Siri AI, you can leverage all that information to do things, learn things, and figure out things in a way that nobody else can do.”
Lilian Rincon, who TIME says leads Apple’s AI product efforts, told the magazine: “We’ve purposely designed it not to be a companion, and we don’t want to replace human connection.”
Why He Says Devices Stay
Ternus argues, TIME reports, that even if other companies build super-intelligence, users will still want to talk to it on Apple devices.
“People want physical things,” he told TIME. “They want to talk, to see images of loved ones, to take pictures. So I don’t see a scenario where all of a sudden, our devices disappear and we don’t have a need for an iPhone.”
TIME puts Apple at 2.5 billion active devices and “nearly half a trillion dollars in annual revenue.”
Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told TIME: “We don’t feel threatened.”
The $1,999 Duo
TIME calls the Duo “Apple’s most radical design change to the iPhone since its 2007 release.” It says Ternus and five other engineers filed a patent application for foldable electronic devices in 2011.
According to TIME, the top surface is “a surface made from a custom polymer and built atop a hinge with more than 100 tiny interior precision components.”
TIME also notes the risks: “Certainly many prospective buyers will blanch at the device’s $2,000-plus price tag.”
Ternus said he has met with members of the Trump Administration to “make sure we’re kind of working through things together,” according to TIME.
TIME reports that Cook has continued to represent Apple on the world stage. “He has great relationships and loves Apple,” Ternus said of Cook. “So wherever he can help, he is happy to help.”
As we read it, the memory remark matters because of who objected: TIME reports that a bipartisan group of senators rebuked Apple over testing Chinese-made memory chips, and Ternus’s answer, as TIME quotes it, was that the shortage is a crisis and all options should be on the table.
As we read it, the Siri arrangement and the memory answer rest on the same argument he makes to TIME: that Apple does not have to make every part, only the parts where it can bring differentiation.
As we read it, the device argument is the core of the strategy as TIME presents it: Ternus says people want physical things, and Apple’s executives describe a personalized, privacy-preserving AI; TIME separately puts Apple at 2.5 billion active devices.
Apple CEO John Ternus, to TIME
“Thereโs not really a goal that we have to make every single thing in a product”
Three Implications
MEMORY SUPPLIERS TIME reports Ternus said all options should be on the table, after senators objected to Apple testing chips made by a Chinese company.
GOOGLE TIME reports the new Siri is powered by an Apple AI model that leverages Google’s Gemini technology.
FOLDABLE RIVALS TIME notes demand for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 has been strong, and calls the $1,999-and-up Duo Apple’s most radical iPhone redesign since 2007.
The analysis puts it this way: “Memory is becoming the new compute.”
As we read it, Ternus’s remark shows the same constraint reaching the device maker: the analysis discusses high-bandwidth memory for AI, and TIME reports the global shortage has raised costs and delayed production timelines. The analysis does not discuss Apple.
TIME reports 2.5 billion active Apple devices and nearly half a trillion dollars in annual revenue; the new Siri is powered by an Apple model that leverages Google’s Gemini technology, and the Duo starts at $1,999 (TIME, 15 Oct 2026).
Update, 17 October: Duo Pre-Orders and Delivery Dates
Apple opened iPhone Duo pre-orders on Friday, 16 October, at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple’s US store lists four storage tiers: 256GB at $1,999, 512GB at $2,199, 1TB at $2,599 and 2TB at $3,199, in Night Sky and Star White.
Delivery dates slipped fast. MacRumors reports that within minutes they moved from October 23 to November, and by 5:30 a.m. reached January 25. Macworld’s live blog, by Michael Simon, says that date applied to “all colors, capacities, and carriers” and was “the furthest we’ve ever seen iPhone pre-orders slip.”
Macworld also reports that Apple’s site replaced store pickup with “Check back for availability on 10.24,” which it reads as limited daily stock in Apple Stores. It says UK dates slipped to December 14-21 for the white 256GB model.
In a statement quoted by 9to5Mac, which says it was shared with CNBC, Apple said: “We are working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible, and we will continue accepting orders online.”
An X post Gennaro flagged, from @StockSavvyShay, said the Duo sold out within minutes with estimates pushed to mid-December. That matched an early snapshot: Macworld logged December 15-22 at 8:21 a.m. Eastern, before US quotes moved to January 25.
What Is Not Established
The texts we read do not say whether Apple has decided to buy memory from a Chinese supplier; the Financial Times report on testing is described by TIME, and we did not read it.
TIME’s profile gives no figure for the cost of the memory shortage to Apple, and no Duo sales or preorder numbers. Apple’s 16 October statement, as quoted, gives no unit figure either; delivery estimates reflect demand and supply together, and Apple has not said how many units it made available.
Business Engineer Framework
The AI Memory Chokepoint
A Business Engineer analysis of why memory, not compute, has become the binding constraint in AI.
Apple’s CEO John Ternus told TIME that “the constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis” and that “all options should be on the table,” in response, TIME reports, to senators’ objections to Apple testing Chinese-made memory chips.
In the same profile, he defended building Siri on a model that leverages Google’s Gemini, saying Apple makes “the things where we can really bring differentiation,” as the company launches the $1,999-and-up Duo.
A note on sourcing. We read TIME’s 15 October 2026 profile “John Ternus Is Engineering a New Era for Apple” in full, and Apple’s leadership pages for his title and Tim Cook’s. Quotes from Ternus, Lilian Rincon and Greg Joswiak are as TIME reports them. The Financial Times report on Apple testing Chinese-made memory chips is described as TIME describes it; we did not read it. Context on Apple Intelligence in China, HomeView and smartphone shipments comes from our own earlier reporting.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur, HackerNoon and Search Engine People. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
Scroll to Top
Discover more from FourWeekMBA
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
