In 2019, Jony Ive left Apple after 27 years. In 2026, he is back with something that could be bigger than the iPhone. His new creation is called Sweetpea. It is an AI device shaped like a smooth stone. It has no screen. It projects information into your hand. And it might change everything.
The first images leaked in January 2026. They showed a small device with a pebble-like shape. Internal code names include Sweetpea and Eggrock. The design is unlike anything on the market today. It is not a phone. It is not a watch. It is something entirely new.
Industry insiders say the first production target is 40 to 50 million units. That is ambitious for a completely new product category. But Jony Ive has done this before. He turned the iPod from a music player into a cultural icon. He turned the iPhone from a smartphone into a way of life.
The man behind this project is Jony Ive. He is the designer who gave the world the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Steve Jobs called him his spiritual partner. For nearly three decades, they shaped the future of technology together.
Ive joined Apple in 1992. Jobs returned in 1997. Together they created products that defined an era. The transparent iMac in 1998. The white iPod in 2001. The iPhone in 2007. The iPad in 2010. Each product was a revolution disguised as an upgrade.
Now he is doing it again. But this time, the partner is not Apple. It is OpenAI. And the goal is not to build a better phone. It is to build the first truly intelligent device.
The leaked roadmap reveals OpenAI’s first hardware project. Sweetpea is just the beginning. The device uses a 2 nanometer chip. That is the most advanced process node available. Only Apple and Qualcomm have reached this level with their flagship chips.
The chip team comes from Samsung’s Exynos division. They were hired specifically for OpenAI. The device also includes a dedicated neural engine chip. One of the project goals is to replace the iPhone. That is not a small ambition.
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Supply chain leaks suggest the bill of materials is close to a high-end smartphone. This means the retail price could fall between 500 and 800 dollars. That is roughly in line with AirPods Pro pricing. Industry watchers have already started calling it the AirPods killer.
Sam Altman described the device in an interview. He said it should feel like talking to a friend. The technology should disappear. The experience should be as natural as breathing. He added that the iPhone is great, but we can do something fundamentally different.
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Those words echo what Jony Ive has always believed. During 27 years at Apple, every product he designed chased one goal. Make complex technology feel simple. Make powerful tools feel human.
The iMac’s transparency made computers less scary. The iPod’s click wheel made digital music tangible. The iPhone’s multi-touch turned fingers into commands. Each time, Ive used design to remove the barrier between human and machine.
The irony is that the iPhone, his greatest success, became the problem it was designed to solve. Notifications, endless scrolling, screen addiction. The device that connected the world also trapped us in glass rectangles.
Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 wondering about one question. What should technology become when it no longer needs a screen? Sweetpea is his answer.
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The story of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive is the story of modern technology. In 2007, Jobs stood on stage in San Francisco and pulled an iPhone from his pocket. The world changed that day. What most people do not know is that Jony Ive’s team had been working on the iPhone in secret for years.
Every Thursday, the design team would present prototypes to Jobs. He would walk in, look at the work, and say one of three things. This is great. This is terrible. Get out of here. There was no middle ground.
Scott Forstall, who led the Safari team, once made a bet with Jobs. He said the iPhone browser was ready. Jobs simply replied, show me. Forstall had nothing to show. He turned around and walked out. That was how Jobs worked. Perfection or nothing.
Bas Ording, the designer who created the iPhone’s rubber band scrolling effect, said something powerful. A young Apple employee recently told him that many of the demos Jobs showed were actually designed by Jony Ive’s team. The public saw Steve. The work came from Jony.
Jobs and Ive were on the same wavelength. Jobs called him his creative soul mate. Inside Apple, every design review was a ritual. Prototypes were polished, refined, and sometimes destroyed. Jobs had absolute authority over design. No one could challenge him. Not even the board.
When Jobs passed away in 2011, that authority disappeared. The design team lost its protector. Under Tim Cook, operations and finance took priority. Jony Ive remained for eight more years, but the magic was fading.
On June 27, 2019, Apple announced Jony Ive was leaving. He would start his own company, LoveFrom. The official reason was to explore new creative directions. The real reasons were more complex.
A former Apple designer revealed in a 2025 interview that the departure came after years of tension. He said Jony Ive faced extreme pressure from Tim Cook and the operations team. The design-first culture that Jobs built was being dismantled. Ive chose to leave rather than watch his legacy destroyed.
After Jobs, the Apple design team lost its偏执狂. What remained was a large organization focused on internal politics. Products became safer, more predictable, and less exciting. The Mac Pro cheese grater. The butterfly keyboard. The touch bar. These were not the bold bets that defined Apple’s golden age.
One former employee described the current state of Apple design in painful terms. He said Safari, Finder, and system interfaces are stagnant. He sees the same design language from ten years ago, just with more padding. The courage to fail, which defined Jobs-era Apple, is gone.
When Jony Ive left, his design partner Evans Hankey also departed in 2022. The Apple design team today is a shadow of what it was. No one has the authority, the vision, or the obsession that made Apple products magical.
So the question became inevitable. If not Apple, then where? Who would give Jony Ive the freedom to build something that matters? The answer turned out to be Sam Altman.
In 2024, Ive and Altman began meeting regularly. Their conversations centered on one question. What should AI hardware become? The answer they found was Calm Technology.
The concept comes from researchers Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown at Xerox PARC in 1996. The idea is simple. Technology should not demand your attention. It should live at the edge of your awareness. It should be present when you need it and invisible when you do not.
Put simply, good technology is like a glass of water on your desk. You do not notice it until you are thirsty. Then it is simply there. The iPhone is the opposite. It demands attention constantly. It interrupts, distracts, and consumes.
Sweetpea is designed to be the water glass, not the alarm clock. No screen to stare at. No notifications to swipe away. Just a small device that sits in your pocket and helps when asked.
Sam Altman described the vision in one sentence. The interface should be so natural that you forget it is technology. You just talk, and things happen. The AI understands context, intent, and emotion. It does not need apps. It does not need menus. It just works.
This is Jony Ive’s first product philosophy applied to AI. Make technology human. Remove the interface. Let the machine disappear.
The leaked roadmap shows Sweetpea is just the start. OpenAI plans to launch a complete AI hardware ecosystem before 2028. Industry sources say the company is already preparing supply chains for multiple devices. This is not a single product launch. It is a platform play.
Some analysts call this the most important product launch since the iPhone. Others say it is impossible. No one has replaced the phone before. But no one had Jony Ive and Sam Altman working together before either.
The comparison to 2007 is unavoidable. That year, the iPhone changed how we communicate, work, and live. In 2026, Sweetpea could change how we interact with intelligence itself. Not a device you use. A companion that helps.
Think about what that means. No more scrolling through apps. No more typing searches. No more managing notifications. Just ask, and receive. The AI knows your calendar, your preferences, your relationships. It acts on your behalf.
Jony Ive once said that design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works. With Sweetpea, he is proving that design is also how it feels. The feeling of technology that finally understands you.
For Apple, this is a warning. The company that defined mobile computing for fifteen years is about to face its biggest challenge. Not from Samsung. Not from Google. From the man who designed their greatest products, working with the company that could make them obsolete.
The story is almost poetic. Jony Ive built the iPhone. He left Apple when it stopped caring about design. Now he is building the thing that might replace it. With OpenAI, not Apple. With vision, not bureaucracy.
Steve Jobs once said that innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. In 2026, we will see if Apple can still innovate. Or if the leader has already left the building.
September 2026. A pebble-shaped device appears in stores. No screen. No notifications. Just intelligence, finally done right. The question is not whether people will buy it. The question is whether they will ever look at their phones the same way again.
