How Apple Reinvented the Selfie for the iPhone 17

In an exclusive interview with two of Apple's technology wizards, BW Businessworld gains an insight into the making of the front camera system of the Apple iPhone series. Jon McCormack, Apple's Vice President of Camera and Photo Software Engineering and Megan Nash, iPhone Product Manager, talk at length with Sahil Mohan Gupta about what Apple calls its "Center Stage camera" for the iPhone 17 generation. They describe how Apple rebuilt the front camera system oversees—long treated as an auxiliary lens— into something foundational

- JON MCCORMACK

CURLY-HAIRED, bespectacled, and Queensland-raised, Apple's camera software chief Jon McCormack has a touch of the mad scientist about him – equal parts genius and inventive - yet he's eloquent and soft-spoken on camera. He chooses his words carefully, his explanations layered but unhurried. A veteran of Amazon and HP, he joined Apple in April 2018 and now oversees Camera and Photo Software Engineering at a moment when the iPhone camera is shifting from optical performance to something more behavioural and human-centred. Off-the-clock, he is a wildlife photographer.

Alongside him in this conversation is Megan Nash, iPhone Product Manager, who took the stage during the September 2025 launch to introduce what Apple calls the “Center Stage camera” for the iPhone 17 generation. Nash represents the bridge between engineering ambition and everyday user reality.

Together they, in an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld describe how Apple rebuilt the front camera system oversees - long treated as an auxiliary lens - into something foundational.

A Front Camera That Understands People

With the iPhone 17 series, Apple has elevated the front camera into what is effectively a systems design story. Center Stage, first seen on the iPad for video calls, now sits at the heart of the iPhone, powered by a larger square-format sensor, new stabilisation rooted in Action mode, and tight integration with Apple silicon. The result is a camera that reframes automatically, detects when orientation should shift, and steadies movement without the user consciously intervening. The effort is driven by a behavioural observation rather than a feature checklist. The modern iPhone user is constantly communicating, recording, reacting, documenting and performing – with the front camera being the lens through which a significant share of daily life is captured.