In an extensive new interview, ex-Apple iPod designer Tony Fadell calls out Apple Intelligence, says Apple got the car project wrong, but could now do an AI pin.
It's almost two decades since Tony Fadell left Apple and started the Nest smart thermostat company. But recently his name has been mentioned as a possible successor to Tim Cook — although possibly only by himself.
He has now given an hour interview to the Newcomer Podcast about everything he would do as Apple CEO — and not do.
Apple Intelligence and marketing
Fadell is not involved with Apple Intelligence, and has never been. He does work on AI and has had meetings with the likes of Humane and Rabbit.
Based on this, says he sees the use for AI, he sees how it will develop, but argues that so far it's all been over-hyped.
"When I saw 'AI-first laptop,' 'AI-first phone,' I was ready to tweet something that was like really, really nasty and I pulled back because I'm like, you know, Apple has never done marketing bullshit before," he said. "And I saw that was complete bullshit."
"Hopefully [now Apple is] finding new religion and going back to the old real smart days," he continued, "which is under-promise and over-deliver."
He's similarly dismissive of Humane and its AI Pin.
"I knew how bad it was because when I had the first meeting, I was like, this thing is going nowhere," he said. "Same thing happened with the Rabbit [R1]. I don't have time for this crap."
Fadell's argument is that this type of device attempted to replace the phone, and nothing will manage that. But this is why he thinks Apple could do well with an AI pin, or a smart ring, or possibly AirPods with cameras.
His central point is that such devices can work when your phone is in your pocket. While he doesn't know if Apple is making a pin, he says, "I hope to God they're working on something."
AI supplementing the phone
Fadell thinks that OpenAI's forthcoming secret device will either be glasses or a pen — and for a very specific reason.
Fadell expects that Jony Ive is working on an AI pen
"They need all the sensor suites," he says. The device will need to capture audio, video, perhaps biometrics and "Apple's not going to give them access on the iPhone."
With a pen, OpenAI can skip asking for all of the permissions that Apple demands of an app. Instead, users will connect one device like they're adding headphones.
"But it's got GPS and everything else in it," says Fadell. "So it's just sucking up all of your context and getting rid of privacy concerns."
That said, Fadell also claims to know that famously privacy-invading company creators now regret some of what they've done. He names Google's original creators as well as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and says that since they've had children, "they think about the world differently... and would like to go back, but they can't."
It's a pointless regret, though, and before your heart bleeds for them, they do all seem to be carrying on trying to breach Apple's privacy systems.
Only Apple has made privacy a key part of their business and their marketing story. But Fadell also thinks that Apple has left behind its original aims in the drive for expansion.
Apple Car
"The first thing [Apple] flubbed on was mobility, the Apple Car," he began. "When Steve Jobs and I would walk around the Apple campus back in 2008/9, we talked about the Apple Car and he thought we need to do it."
Fadell says that Jobs's vision for the project was a people's car, inspired by the original Volkswagen. "What's the next generation people's car? What's going to be used in the cities?"
Where he believes Apple effectively tried to make a self-driving SUV, the company should have looked instead at changing how people thought about cars.
"Apple is a company that redefines certain aspects of life," he said. "It redefined what it was to do desktop publishing, or publishing in general. It redefined music. So they should redefine mobility."
Fadell also thinks Apple should bring back the iPod. The last one was discontinued back in 2022.
It's been 18 years since Fadell knew what was going on at Apple
Fadell does not know what Apple is doing now because he left in 2008. There are still only rumors about him leaving because of power struggles with another Steve Jobs favorite, Scott Forstall.
But when Forstall was forced out of Apple in 2012, Fadell said that "Scott got what he deserved."
Forstall went on to produce shows on Broadway, while Fadell created the Nest smart thermostat company. In 2014, Google bought Nest, and by 2018, though, Fadell was gone, having fostered what employees called "an atmosphere of fear."
Today Fadell says he is on the board of many companies, and acting as a "shadow CEO" on others. That means advising the real CEOs, particularly on technology issues, and today therefore AI ones.
