Interview with Apple's Phil Schiller and John Ternus on new MacBooks, in-house collaboration, partnerships, and creating new products
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2015 Mashable sit-down with Phil Schiller and John Ternus is an early installment of what becomes Apple's recurring playbook: letting its own executives narrate Mac launches directly. A year later, Schiller was back on the same circuit with Craig Federighi and Jony Ive, framing the Touch Bar and arguing for keeping iOS and macOS distinct ([[a:876715]]).
It also captures Ternus early, as a supporting voice beside Schiller — across the following decade he moves to center stage, co-fronting the Pro Workflows Team interview ([[a:1155121]]) and appearing as hardware engineering chief in the chip-division profiles ([[a:846919]]).
First-order effects
- For readers and reviewers, the interview lets Apple set its own framing on the new MacBooks first — emphasizing collaboration between internal teams and external partners rather than waiting for spec-driven coverage.
- It publicly positions Ternus alongside Schiller years before he leads hardware engineering, establishing a named second face for the Mac line.
Second-order effects
- The format proves portable across outlets — Mashable here, then CNET, The Independent, TechCrunch, CNBC, and Fast Company in later sessions — turning access to Apple's executives into something publications compete for, which hands Apple control over where its narratives land.
- Each session builds continuity for the next: the 2016 Touch Bar conversation and the 2020 M1 launch interviews inherit and extend the framing established here.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple institutionalizes executive-led storytelling as permanent infrastructure — dedicated groups like the Pro Workflows Team and the chip division become public-facing brands in their own right.
- The same record suggests Apple uses these interviews to develop its next generation of leaders: Ternus moves from junior participant in 2015 to the executive fronting iPad/M4 and chip-division coverage by the 2020s.
The trend: Apple has turned recurring executive interviews into a standing narrative channel for the Mac line, elevating figures like John Ternus from supporting voices to leads along the way.