Forget artificial intelligence and focus on really big phone screens. That's the message from Apple's annual product event and it means new CEO John Ternus is kicking off his tenure with a risky approach.

Apple is in a strange place. Its stock performance is robust in comparison to Big Tech peers splashing the cash on AI but the reign of previous chief Tim Cook was marked by a feeling it had lost its innovative edge. Ternus is expected to change that, and as a hardware engineer he's opting for a new design over whizzy AI capabilities.

Still, a foldable smartphone in the new iPhone Duo is an interesting choice. Foldables are a niche category despite years of releases from Samsung and Huawei. Ternus says that's because they feel like "two phones awkwardly stuck together" and the Duo will be different. At a $2,000 price point, he better be right.

In fact, Apple is heavily pushing pricey phones. The new iPhone 18 lineup will initially only have premium-priced models. Anyone hoping to get a cheaper base model will have to wait until next year. That might be to offset the margin pressure from soaring memory costs. Meanwhile, a long-awaited AI update to Apple's Siri digital assistant will be available this month, but only in beta and not in the EU or China.

Put it all together and you have a big bet that smartphone consumers don't much care about AI and that Apple can succeed in foldables in a way no-one else has. If anyone can pull it off Apple can-but if it flops, expect complaints about missing out on an AI-driven future to come back louder than ever.