Apple CEO Tim Cook is the opening speaker Tuesday night (6pm PDT/9pm EDT) for AllThingsD’s D11 conference, which runs through Thursday.
We’ll add our own notes to this article as the talk progresses:
• Mossberg opens with his usual Android Tourettes: Blah, blah, blah, Android, blah, Android, blah: “Is Apple is trouble?”
• Cook: “Absolutely not.”
• Cook: “I look at [our stellar sales numbers of iPhone and iPad], and I feel pretty good. We had an unprecedented number of new products last year.”
• Cook: Apple’s stock price has been frustrating for investors and for all of us. This too is not unprecedented. $200 at end of 2007, but $75 a couple years later.
• Mossberg: You need hits. It’s been a while. Are you still that company?
• Cook: Yes, we’re still that company. We have some incredible plans that we’ve been working on for a while.
• MDN Ed.: iPhone was released 5 years, 7 months, and 19 days after iPod. iPad was released 2 years, 9 months, and 5 days after iPhone. Tim Cook has been Apple CEO for 1 year, 9 months, 5 days.
• Cook: We’ve now sold over 13 million Apple TV units. About half of those in the last year alone.
• Cook: We think a lot about the TV experience can be better
• Cook: Apple TV has been very good from learning point of view for Apple
• Mossberg: Is Hollywood holding up Apple’s next-gen move in TV?
• Cook: I don’t want to go into detail… TV continues to be an area of great interest for Apple… I don’t want to go any further on this. I don’t want to give anyone any ideas that they don’t have.
• Swisher: What would you like to see in TV? Is there a grand vision?
• Cook: There is a grand vision
• Swisher: What is you take of Google Glass?
• Cook: There are some positives in the product… The liklihood that it has broad appeals is hard to see
• Cook said wearable computing could be a profoundly interesting area. As he did last year, Cook notes he wears a Nike FuelBand, “I think Nike did a great job with this.”
• Cook: It’s an area that’s ripe for exploration… for us all getting excited about. There will be tons of companies involved. Nothing great on market yet
• Mossberg: Will Apple be one of them?
• Cook: I don’t want to answer that one.
• Cook: I think the wrist is natural [vs. eyewear]… glasses are risky from mainstream point of view
• Cook: To convince people to wear something, it has to be incredible
• Mossberg: You started the modern smartphone movement, and now you’ve seen Android swamp you in terms of units and carriers. How do that feel?
• Cook: Winning at Apple, isn’t about making the most, it’s about making the best
• Cook: look at usage, what are customers doing? 80% of tablet users on Web are iPad users.
• Mossberg: So what’s your theory? Are people buying Android products and putting them in a drawer?
• Cook: “Globally, I think there’s probably a lot of phones that are called ‘smartphones’ that… if we were labeling what they are, we might say, that’s a ‘feature phone’ and the user uses it like the old feature phones.” A lot of Android tablets aren’t very compelling, so they don’t get used like a real iPad.
• Mossberg: iPad and iPhone – when are you changing it up?
• Cook: What’s new, what’s coming, what’s next, when is it coming. I’m not going to answer those questions tonight. WWDC 2013 is in two weeks
• Swisher tries again: Talk to us about the new iOS
• Cook: Remember what it was like on Christmas Eve? (Swisher says she opened her presents on Christmas Eve, Mossberg says he’s Jewish)
• Mossberg: Is this what Jony Ive has been working on?
• Cook: Jony made major contributions to the look and feel of Apple hardware over the years; we felt he could do that for software as well
• Swisher asks about Forstall’s ouster, Cook evades; says he doesn’t want to talk about particular people.
• Cook on management style: Always asks himself, “What’s in Apple’s best interest?”
• Cook: Keeping the culture of Apple is the most important way he’s like Steve
• Mossberg asks about low-cost iPhone for emerging markets
• Cook: We haven’t made a low-cost iPhone so far. That doesn’t shut out the future. To do a phone right takes a lot of work, a lot of really detailed work
• Mossberg: What about an iPhone with a larger screen that the current iPhone 5’s 4-inch display?
• Cook: A large screen today comes with lots of tradeoffs: Battery life, color accuracy, brightness, etc.
• Cook: We believe the Retina display we ship today is the best. In a hypothetical world, where trade-offs don’t exist, screen size would be a differentiation.
• Swisher: Let’s talk about taxes
• Cook: We felt like it was an opportunity to appear at Senate hearing. Apple is not asking for tax breaks, but we think there should be comprehensive reform – revenue neutral
• Cook: Very important for us to go tell our story… For multi-nationals, the right approach is simplicity. Simplicity. Just gut the code; it is 7,500 pages None of us can read it. Apple’s tax return is over two feet high! It’s absolutely crazy
• Cook: Tim: We pay $6 billion – the highest corporate tax in the US. Apple pays more U.S. taxes than anybody. Not saying we should pay less. We understand that we may wind up paying more, but Apple would also have unlimited ability to repatriate capital.
• Cook: Apple has no special deal with the Irish government
• Cook: If everything developed in the US will be taxed here on worldwide profits – this would not be good for jobs in the US
• Cook: I hope our visit to Washington D.C. helps the reform process
• Mossberg asks about all the government agencies investigating Apple over various things in U.S. and abroad
• Cook: It comes with the territory
• Cook: Take the environment. We try to leave things better than we found them. Former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson is joining Apple. Will report directly to Cook.
• Cook: Apple owns largest solar farm and largest fuel cell generation capability of any non-energy company
• Cook: E-book case is “bizarre. We’ve done nothing wrong there. We’re going to fight. [unlike the spineless publishers – MDN Ed.]
• Swisher: Why doesn’t Apple do anything with its cash hoard? [She must have missed the news of dividends and the $60 billion in buybacks – MDN Ed.]
• Cook: This year we’ve already acquired 9 companies.
• Mossberg: Did you announce them?
• Cook: Only when we have to
• Swisher: Is Apple missing social?
• Cook: I’ve never felt like we’ve needed a social network. Facebook and Twitter are deeply integrated into iOS
• Cook: We’re not afraid of large acquisitions.
• Mossberg: Have you given any thought to a little bit less control in iOS?
• Cook: Sure we have. We think our customers pay us to make choices on their behalf. I’ve see some of these Android settings screens and I don’t think that’s what the majority of customers want – But, you’ll see us open up more
Audience Q&A
• Facebook has begin to make money in mobile ads. What about Apple?
• Cook: iAd was begun to help advertisers make money – it’s still important to devs and Apple… explains how iAds makes money for developers
• Cook: Apple developers tend to make more money than Android devs
• Should Apple open up iCloud to other platforms?
• Cook: Would Apple port an app from iOS to Android? We have no religious issue with taht. If we thought it made sense, we’d do it
• When is the right time to by a kid their first iPhone?
• Cook: Parenting is key. I like kids to learn very young, but I want that experience to be curated by the parents
• What services are coming from Apple to compete with Google, keep users on iOS?
• Cook: iMessage delivers two billion messages per day. iTunes is delivering an incredible range of content… Facetime is used tremendously… However, we’re making tons of tons of investments in services. I don’t want to announce something today but it’s something we’re very focused on
• Swisher: Did Appel bid on Waze?
• Cook: No.
• Google tries all sorts of stuff, will Apple let people dream?
• Cook: For the past 15 years, Apple has believed in the power of surprise
• Mossberg: Is Apple maps fixed to your satisfaction?
• Cook: Greatly improved, but not there yet. We screwed up on it. We’re going to fix it
• Cook: Mapping is complex… We have an enormous investment in Maps and we’ve made many, many improvements over the last several months
• Does Apple need to own content?
• Cook: I’ve never believed we needed to own content; we just need access to great content
• Lots of patent litigation, but it hasn’t really accomplished anything, has it? Samsung is now differentiated from you. What’s your end game?
• Cook: I don’t like copying. This is a values issue
• With Mac you had iLife as a differentiator. What differentiator(s) do you have for iOS?
• Cook: With tablet: Pages, GarageBand, iMovie – all top sellers
• You’ll continue to see some cool things there. Apple’s [app] contributions will be mostly in the creation space.
• And, that’s all, folks. Tim Cook shakes hands and exits stage.
—
Live coverage links:
– AllThingsD
– Engadget
– TIME Magazine
– The Verge
Lie #1: “We had an unprecedented number of new products last year.”
Lie #2: “We have some incredible plans that we’ve been working on for a while.”
Same ole same ole from the lackluster Mr. Cook. Look for AAPL to tank tomorrow. Again.
Oh dear, same ‘ole’ asinine commentary from yet another clueless Apple hater.
iPhone/iPad/iOS each have a higher level of satisfaction than any of their respective peers. The iMac is unmatched on the PC side and the Retina MBP is the laptop benchmark.
None of this is visible to brainless ‘android’ users isn’t it?
The combination of journalistic idiocy and years of government education stagnation has taken a toll on these people’s ability to use reason.
Sad.
That being said, Apple still makes, and will continue to make, the most unexpectedly delightful, undeniably desirable, and inevitably profitable products on planet Earth. Excellence becomes its own reward, and presumptuous stoats will return to the heath.
In 2012, for the first time ever, Apple replaced every consumer product they make with a new model in a single calendar year.
This year many of these will change again (and we’ll see the Mac Pro replaced as well).
Lie #3: “Jay Morrison know what, he is talking about!”
I have to say if someone wants to be a convincing critic it isn’t by claiming that something we cant possibly have the answer to, as its in the future, is a concrete Lie, that is a pretty lame attempt by any standard. But then it seems even Android clones cant help but make up plastic unintuitive, bloated copies of a decent believable lie. Mind you at least he didn’t claim what a fantastic ‘Fanboy’ he was.
These are some boring ass questions. I can’t believe they get the coverage the do…
Hold your horses, AAPL will laugh on its way up on WWDC.
No, no please! If stocks goes down is better for Apple! How many more shares they may able to buy with the same 100B? The lowest the better. Go private Apple! The only people that is concerned with the stock is the shareholders not the consumer. The consumer is till buying Apple products and that’s what matter most.
They are not going fucking private! Will you people quit saying that.
These are some boring ass questions. I can’t believe they get the coverage they do…
Too many of those questions were ones where many of us could have predicted what the answer would be. There are well known areas where Apple execs decline to make comments or be drawn further. It’s pointless to even ask those questions.
Well, if I was there, I would ask when AAPL will be $700. How is that, exciting at all?.
He’s not lying, it’s just the dumb plowboy routine and it gets you every time. He’s a lot smarter than you think he is….
🙂 Not even a routine. The man has taken a lot of shots, more than you, me, or Mike Tyson would smilingly absorb. Still, he is not capitulating or even sweating, and why not?—because the man runs the one and only Factory of Wonders. Does anyone seriously believe they’ve run dry? No. It’s FUD, all of it, and no credit to any man who spreads that nonsense around like a common STD.
I think only time will tell if what he is doing is the correct route. His main job has been keeping calm, taking flak and allowing the critics to burn out their ammunition by making Apple a mature post Jobs company. Yes it would have been great if there could be a Jobs 2 but that is almost impossible (as they found the last time) so something different has to take place especially as it is totally unrealistic to expect Apple to grow at its recent rate under Jobs or otherwise.
I would have liked Cook to be a little more inspiring a speaker I have to say but then the critics would only dig their barbs deeper in comparison so likely a pointless exercise. Hopefully he will set the scene for someone new and somewhat more publicly inspiring to follow, giving that person a much easier ride by comparison and a chance to express their own personal vision in a better critical environment. Though I suspect it will be a long time before the ingrained idiosy of many a critic will fade.
He wasn’t going to answer anything we already know, re: products. To raise, or lower expectations? That is the question. I’m looking forward to being blown away by Apple again. But we’ll have to wait.
With your best guess, what do you think of AAPL tomorrow would be, up / down?.
Down $2.67 in premarket trading. You didn’t really think it would be up did you?
iCal this: If all we get from the upcoming WWDC is some “flatness” from Jony, tinkering with the phone, pad, and pod and little more than than a .01 upgrade in the new iOS, then AAPL will quickly become a $200 stock. The market doesn’t care about yesterday’s sales numbers, yesterday’s profits, or yesterday success of any kind from a tech company. Once investors smell burn out on anything really WOW! on the horizon, it’s over. All of us, customers and investors alike, would have been better off if Tim hadn’t wasted time on the burned out D11 and instead just follow the STFU advice he now receives with growing frequency. Very sad but it is what it is.
Why do you post here?
If the only thing this site does is provide a place where blind Apple lemmings congregate to praise the once great company, what’s the use of it? I post here to provide a little balance between the swooning over yesteryear and the reality of what has happened inside Apple Inc. – nothing good. That’s why the stock has collapsed and why customers are flocking to Apple’s competitors. I don’t like any of that and someone needs to wave a red flag and see if anyone cares about the reality or is it just hopeless among so many in denial. Besides that, I enjoy being called a “troll.”
You are guilty of the mistaking your opinions for facts.
You’re no where near a balancing opinion. What the ‘market’ thinks about Apple is irrelevant when considering their technology and consumer utility and uptake. Apple doesn’t need anything from Wall Street and doesn’t allow Wall Street to paracitize value (money) from the Apple/customer relationship. Apple is doing just fine.
Shut the fuck up Jim asswipe and carry you sphincter elsewhere.
Same reason you post here. Because it’s a free country and he can. Don’t like opinions? Go somewhere else. I may or may not agree with him. But he certainly doesn’t need to ask your permission to post here. Nor do I or anyone else. This isn’t your website. It isn’t just for fanboys. Go to the Apple store website and read all the ads. That way you’ll get nothing but positive karma. Gush all you wish.
You know, I’m well aware that 10 point Helvetica doesn’t convey emotion very well, but do you ever read simple questions without deciding all kinds of nasty intentions behind them? I was actually posing that question in all honesty: I was sincerely curious about his motivation for posting here. And he provided his answer, which then you decided wasn’t his real motivation and gave your own for him. I’m not sure which is more sad: His trying to provide “balance” to a bunch of “Apple lemmings” or your feeling you need to explain others to me.
Here, today’s typeface should be 24 point Comic Sans
There are some, however—less savvy than you, perhaps—who understand that the strategic behavior of A-list profitable corporations is not influenced by fickle investors any more than racehorses are bothered by bottle flies—that in fact Apple is sprinting, has been for some time, has the lead, and is on track to win it all. Android represents the majority of equine contenders; collectively, they outdistance Apple, but only one—perhaps Samsung—can place or show, at best. Bettors need to consider the story arc of Secretariat, lest they fall prey to the hucksterism of the nigh-infinite (which is to say very common) naysayers.
Or maybe neigh-sayers?
I don’t like copying.
Now Tim Cook hinted that Apple’s going to work on wearable products, perhaps Samsung will copy soon.
Cook: “It’s an area that’s ripe for exploration… for us all getting excited about. There will be tons of companies involved. Nothing great on market yet”
In all the straw, here’s what you want: “There will be tons of companies involved.” — This tells everything. I don’t want to spoil it. 😎
He was referring to the wearables market segment being crowded with tons of companies, not that Apple was signing deals with them.
It is clear that Apple will make a wrist wearable item that will spawn a huge hardware and software ecosystem of its own, be personally or socially inobtrusive, reward users and developers, establish new user interface, hook deeply into personal health and wellness, look great and integrate deeply with its own ecosystem. It won’t be a watch any more than an iPhone is a phone. It is also clear that the TV product being readied will use the popular and hot selling Apple TV for it’s R&D and initial user base to launch something unexpected and deeply desireable.
Wow! You must also know what the Powerball numbers will be tonight!!! Boy, you sho is smart.
No different to Jay Morrison then if from an opposing perspective. Panicking and throwing out any number of supposed new innovations blunderbuss style never has and never will be the right way for Apple it would crucify them, even Samsung got slagged off by many for that continuing one trick pony attempt with the G4. It is much more intelligent to make criticisms that are real and achievable than childish whinging because Cook didn’t announce a time traveling toaster. Would investors prefer Apple to take a leaf out of Samsung’s book (the only other profit making realistic competitor) and as such make rather less money from rather more lower quality products?
Apple has made mistakes it should have made different iPhones for different markets/market segments and the iPad mini earlier but the sort of hysterical statements by some people (trolls or otherwise) is pathetic and on the whole totally ignorant of what made Apple the most profitable company in the World in the first place and made shareholders their profits along the way. But then rational thought is far less common that blustering irrationality and petty insults.