Apple has handed over robot development to an iPhone executive - John Ternus leads the team

Apple has transferred its secretive robotics team to the leadership of John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware responsible for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Here's What We Know

Previously, the team reported to the head of AI, John Giannandrea, but after the delay in the launch of Apple Intelligence for Siri, the company is gradually taking away large projects from him.

Siri is now being worked on by Mike Rockwell, who is leading the development of the Vision Pro headset, and the robots are under the control of Ternus. Apple wants to give Giannandrea's team more time to focus on artificial intelligence as the company tries to catch up with rivals Google and OpenAI.

Kevin Lynch, known as one of the creators of the Apple Watch and the cancelled Apple Car, is now in charge of robot development at the company. According to Bloomberg, Apple is already working on several devices. One of them is a desktop robot with an iPad-like display that can move. The other is a mobile robot that looks like a tablet on wheels, capable of answering questions, performing simple actions, and making calls.

The merger of robotics projects under Ternus may indicate that Apple is preparing to seriously launch its own robots.

As a reminder, most Americans are willing to spend $10 per month for Apple Intelligence. The survey, conducted online in February and March of this year by Morgan Stanley, covered thousands of consumers in the US.

Source: Bloomberg