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It is hard to say what that device is because in the nine-minute video accompanying the news of the deal Ive and Altman don’t say anything. The slick video harkens back to Ive’s glory days at Apple when he would talk about the chips, designs, and aluminum on videos extolling the iPhone, the watch, and the laptops. In a way, what he and Altman are indicating, through words, and subliminal marketing, is that we are building the next Apple.

The word around hardware circles has been that Ive’s team has been hiring a lot of talented engineers, including experts in firmware and embedded systems. And if you watch the video, you can see Altman and Ive painstakingly avoided mentioning that they are building a phone. Altman gave the example of using ChatGPT by getting on a laptop and a web browser. “And I would hit enter, and I would wait, and I would get a response,” Altman quips. “And that is at the limit of what the current tool of a laptop can do.” Laptop in 2025? You are kidding me. 

The only reason you don’t mention a device that is a default for most people — the smartphone — is because you are building one. Don’t be surprised if they launch a new phone — a reimagined phone — to compete with not only Apple, but with Google’s Android. It could come with headphones, glasses or other accessories that allow you to tap into ChatGPT without typing.

This tandem of hardware, and a thin layer of software as veneer for AI to access information and services could be a nice bridge to the future. Just as personal computers of the past have co-existed with our smartphones, this new kind of device could co-exist with the smartphone. At least for a little while. 

Or it could be that io gets ambitious and creates a brand-new form factor.

Whether you believe that io has a device in the works or not, you can’t deny that we are living in a moment of incredible innovation and reinvention because of AI. And just as the iPhone 18 years ago reimagined the phone, the PC, the camera and and the entire consumer electronics industry into one device, it feels like we are at a similar inflection point.

Indeed, in some ways we have been building towards this moment for a decade. Eleven years ago, Google decided to buy Nest for $3.2 billion dollars. That specific deal was about the inevitability of the Internet, where everything would have a digital heartbeat and a connection to the network. This new state of connectedness would define usage, experience, and behaviors.

Not everyone thinks that deal was a success. But the idea behind it? Absolutely.  The idea of connectedness everywhere feels commonplace. You must search high and low to find a device that doesn’t connect to something else or is attached to a service.  

Readers of CrazyStupidTech.com (and my blog, Om.co) are familiar with my argument that we have entered a new era of transacting with data and information. It won’t be long that we would be looking at a world beyond the browsers (and apps.) This belief is why I think of Generative AI more as a behavioral shift, much like social, and mobile. Don’t get me wrong – I am not saying that the “smartphone will die” and that “we will use only the new devices.” Instead what I am arguing is that a new platform means an opportunity to reinvent everything: services, hardware, and behaviors. 

The behavioral shift will be more predominant in the coming generation of technology users, those who have grown up (or are growing up) interacting with their machines via gestures, and voice. Others are now getting used to asking and getting what they want from their machines. Information and various services on the internet have been defined by the notion of a destination. Generative AI, whether you like it or not, is helping atomize information, and separate it from a destination.

“Gross oversimplification, but like older people use ChatGPT as a Google replacement. Maybe people in their 20s and 30s use it as like a life advisor, and then, like people in college use it as an operating system,” Altman said at Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent event earlier this month.

Even companies that continue to make billions from the old Internet know this. Google was happy to cut a $150 million deal with Warby Parker to develop XR glasses, a concept that was first seeded and popularized by Snap, with its AR glasses. In China, AR glasses are a dime a dozen. Humane’s AIPin, was an early proponent of a new AI-device. Google, at its 2025 I/O event went all-in on the idea of reinventing the phone as an AI-first device. 

Humane might have fizzled as a company, but the idea is not without merit in a world without a browser window or an app. In a decade from now, we won’t think twice about having a fabric of personal devices that will be  ambient, probably without screens and most likely without a keyboard.

That’s the playground Ive and Altman’s io wants to play. Apple’s idea machine seems to be stuck in neutral. The Asian companies are experimenting with form factors but have not found the silver bullet. Other startups are constrained by either money or talent. Ive and Altman seem to have the talent, the team, and endless capital to deliver a new idea. I am all for io’s experimentation.

And one more thing! 

In 2021, OpenAI was valued at $6.1 billion. Now they are buying a 55-person company with a mystery product for $6.5 billion. This talk of the new yet to be announced device will allow Altman to raise a few more billion dollars, and raise the valuation of OpenAI to hitherto unprecedented heights, and in turn acquire other vectors to further his ambition.