I already told you that Tim Cook gave a big interview for Businessweek and that he hinted that Apple was developing a TV, and now the time has come to present you some other interesting details mentioned by Cook. The interview has 11 pages, here you have only a summarized version of the most important information from it, the rest being available on the website of Businessweek.
- about Apple's charity actions, Tim Cook says, quoting John F. Kennedy, that people who receive a lot also have high expectations from others, he guides himself in his charitable activity by these words.
- about his tendency to stay away from the "spotlight", Tim Cook says that he never sought fame, he was focused on the work done within Apple and on the idea of helping people to do great things.
- on the first day at Apple, Tim Cook claims that he had to go through a group of people who were on strike, but we are not talking about employees but about customers of the company, their dissatisfaction being related to the fact that Steve Jobs decided to stop producing Newton the Cook was amazed by people's attachment to this product, something that is hard to find in many companies.
- talking about the company's profit, Cook says that Apple is trying to improve people's lives and not make money, the employees not being focused on producing profit, a "story" that he and his vice presidents probably believe.
- referring to Scott Forstall and John Browett, Cook says that they lacked the ability to collaborate with the people around them, the decision to dismiss them being made to improve collaboration between members of the management team.
- the decision to make Jony Ive responsible for software design represented a natural evolution of his responsibilities, he doing such a good job with the hardware of the products launched in recent years. His experience was needed to improve the appearance of the software design, one of the most important things of a product.
- answering a question related to a possible combination of iOS and OS X, Cook stated that most customers want iOS for iDevices and OS X for Macs, and Apple does not intend to combine them.
- speaking of the iPad, Cook says that Apple's tablet is much better than its competitors, based only on Internet usage statistics. 90% of tablet web traffic is done by the iPad, the tablet does not have a market share of 90% and this denotes the fact that it is much better than the rest, in this regard.
- talking about the failure of other tablets, Cook says that the existence of several operating systems/UIs generates confusion among consumers, simplicity being the way to success. Apple believes that users want to have quick access to everything that is important to them, and so far they have been right.
- speaking about the prices, Cook says that the cheap products do not offer the same experience as the products that have a "fair price", and in general he is right, until now the products with low prices leave many customers with a bitter taste.
- iOS 6 Maps was a failure and Cook claims that from a strategic point of view, it was important for Apple to give up the collaboration with Google. Apple set out to offer customers a much better experience, it was wrong and Cook admitted this. At the moment, Apple is trying to solve its problems, it has a whole plan in place, but it is far from completed.
- talking about Samsung, Cook says that Apple separates the divisions of the Koreans and so the decision was made to continue collaborating with component manufacturers, while the mobile division continues to copy their products.
- talking about Steve Jobs and the day he found out that he would be CEO, Cook says that he visited Jobs' house where Steve told him that there had never been a professional transition of the CEO position at Apple. In order to pass Apple through this stage, Jobs recommended Cook as the new CEO, he was going to occupy the position of president of the board of directors, something that finally happened.
