Ondrej Holzman Tim Cook presented himself as one of the main faces at the D10 conference, where he talked about Steve Jobs, Apple TV, Facebook or the patent war. The host duo Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher tried to get some details out of him, but as usual, the CEO of Apple did not tell his biggest secrets...
At the conference of the All Things Digital server, Cook followed up with Steve Jobs, who regularly performed there in the past. However, it was the first time in the hot red seat for Apple's current CEO.
About Steve Jobs
The conversation naturally turned to Steve Jobs. Cook openly admitted that the day Steve Jobs died was clearly one of the saddest of his life. But when he recovered from the death of his long-time boss, he was refreshed and even more motivated to carry on what Jobs had left him.
The co-founder of Apple and a great visionary is said to have taught Cook that the key to everything is concentration and that he should not be satisfied with the good, but should always want the best. “Steve always taught us to look forward, not to the past,” remarked Cook, who always thought most of his answers carefully. “When I say nothing will change, I'm talking about the culture at Apple. It is completely unique and cannot be copied. We have it in our DNA,” said Cook, who was encouraged by Steve Jobs to make decisions for himself and not think about what Jobs would do in his place. "He could change his mind so quickly you wouldn't believe he was saying the exact opposite just the day before." said the fifty-one-year-old CEO of the California company about Jobs.
Cook also noted that Apple will tighten the protection of its products under development, as recently some plans have surfaced sooner than Apple would have liked. "We will improve the secrecy of our products," said Cook, who refused to give any details about the company's future products throughout the interview.
About tablets
Walt Mossberg asked Cook about the difference between PCs and tablets, after which the Apple boss explained why an iPad is not the same as a Mac. "A tablet is something else. It handles things that aren't encumbered by what a PC is,” stated "We didn't invent the tablet market, we invented the modern tablet," Cook said of the iPad, using his favorite metaphor of combining a refrigerator and a toaster. According to him, such a combination would not create a good product, and the same is true for tablets. “I love convergence and connection, in many ways that's a great thing, but products are about compromises. You have to choose. The more you look at the tablet as a PC, the more problems from the past will affect the final product.” Cook told Mossberg, a respected technology journalist.
About patents
Kara Swisher, on the other hand, was interested in Tim Cook's attitude to patents, which are the subject of huge disputes and are dealt with practically every day. "It is annoying," said Cook frankly, thinking for a moment and adding: "It is important for us that Apple does not become a developer for the whole world."
Cook compared patents to art. "We can't take all our energy and care, create an image, and then watch someone put their name on it." Mossberg countered by saying that Apple is also accused of copying foreign patents, after which Cook replied that the problem is that these are often very basic patents. "This is where the problem arises in the patent system," he declared. "Apple has never sued anyone over the core patents we own because we feel bad about it."
According to Cook, it is the basic patents that every company should provide responsibly and at its discretion that are the biggest problem. "It all kind of went awry. It won't stop us from innovating, it won't, but I wish this problem didn't exist." added.
About factories and production
The topic also turned to Chinese factories, which have been discussed a lot in recent months, and Apple has been accused of having employees work in completely unacceptable conditions. "We said we wanted to stop it. We measure the working hours of 700 people," Cook stated, saying that no one else was doing anything like this. According to him, Apple is making great efforts to eliminate overtime, which undoubtedly exists in Chinese factories. But there is a problem that makes it partially impossible. "But many workers want to work as much as possible so that they can earn as much money as possible in the year or two they spend in the factory and bring it back to their villages." revealed a level-headed Cook.
At the same time, Cook confirmed that Apple decided about ten years ago not to make all the components themselves, when others can do it as well as he himself. However, all production processes and technologies are created by Apple itself. That won't change, although Mossberg questioned whether we'll ever see products that can say 'built in the USA'. Cook, as the mastermind of all operations, admitted that he would like to see it happen one day. Currently, it would be possible to write on the back of some products that only certain parts are made in the USA.
About Apple TV
TV. This has recently been a much-discussed topic in connection with Apple, and so it was understandably of interest to the two presenters. So Kara Swisher asked Cook directly how he plans to change the world of television. However, the Apple executive started the current Apple TV, which he says sold 2,8 million units last year and 2,7 million this year. "It's an area we're interested in," Cook revealed. "It's not the fifth leg at the table, although it's not as big a business as phones, Macs, tablets or music."
Mossberg wondered if Apple could continue to develop only the box and leave the screens to other manufacturers. For Apple at that point, it would be important if it could control the key technology. “Can we control the key technology? Can we contribute much more to this area than anyone else has?” Cook asked rhetorically.
However, he immediately rejected that Apple could enter the world of creating its own content, perhaps for Apple TV. “I think the partnership that Apple has is the right step in this area. In my opinion, Apple doesn't need to own the content business because they have no problem getting it. If you look at the songs, we have 30 million. We have over 100 episodes of series and also tens of thousands of movies.
About Facebook
Facebook was also mentioned, with which Apple does not have ideal relations. It all started last year, when the agreement between these parties collapsed regarding the Ping service, where Apple wanted to integrate Facebook, and iOS 5, where only Twitter appeared in the end. However, under the leadership of Tim Cook, it looks like Apple and Facebook will try to work together again.
"Just because you have a different opinion on something doesn't mean you can't work together," Cook said. “We want to give customers a simple and elegant solution for the activities they want to do. Facebook has hundreds of millions of users, and anyone with an iPhone or iPad wants to have the best experience with Facebook. You can look forward to," baited by Cook.
We could expect Facebook in iOS already at the developer conference WWDC, where Apple will probably present the new iOS 6.
About Siri and product naming
When talking about Siri, Walt Mossberg said that it's a very handy feature, but it doesn't always work as expected. However, Tim Cook countered that Apple has several innovations of its voice assistant ready. “I think you're going to be delighted with what we're going to do with Siri. We have a few ideas for what else Siri can be used for.” Cook revealed, along with people falling in love with Siri. “Siri has shown that people want to interact with their phone in a certain way. Voice recognition has been around for a while, but Siri makes it unique.” noted Cook, who said that it is unbelievable that in less than a year Siri has entered the subconscious of most people.
There was also a question related to Siri, how they name their products at Apple. The letter S in the name iPhone 4S actually refers to the voice assistant. “You can stick with the same name, which people generally like, or you can add a number to the end to indicate the generation. If you keep the same design as in the case of the iPhone 4S, some may say that the letter is there for Siri or for speed. With the iPhone 4S, we meant Siri by "esque", and with the iPhone 3GS, we meant speed," Cook revealed.
However, it can be expected that the next generation of the Apple phone, which will most likely be presented in the fall, will not bear any nickname, but will be just a new iPhone, following the model of the iPad.
Is it possible to watch this interview on video somewhere? :) I'd love to watch it.
Jeez Karl, stop spamming and learn better :D
"Hey Fero! What? Shut the fuck up!” Source: Direct quote Karl BigSmoke Flen 31/5/2012 available from : U Karela :D
Look at the picture, there is an address…