“In an interview on Feb. 12 at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., CEO Tim Cook spoke expansively about the state of Apple,” Adam Lashinsky reports for Fortune. “He talked about how Apple behaves in a down cycle, how the company’s once-sacrosanct only-in-Cupertino mind-set is evolving, and the importance of services to Apple’s product mix.”
Some snippets:
Fortune: Critics slammed Apple for its flat fiscal-first-quarter performance, despite selling 74 million iPhones and making $18 billion in profit. What is your reaction?
Tim Cook: I’m good at blocking out the noise. I come back to, Are we doing the right things? Are we remembering our North Star? Are we focused on making the best products that really help people enrich their lives in some way? And we’re doing all those things. People really love our products. Customers are happy. And that’s what drives us. Over time I’m sure that everything else will catch up.
Fortune: Can you afford to spend relatively large amounts of money on things you don’t end up commercializing?
Tim Cook: Well, could we? Yes. But would we? We don’t have to spend large amounts to explore. So I can’t talk about this certain area that you’re talking about. But when we start spending large amounts of money, we’re committed at that point. But we explore things with teams of people. And that’s a part of being curious… But once we start spending gobs of money — like when we start spending on tooling and things like that — we’re committed.
Fortune: Do you foresee a day when a manufacturer would make an automobile on a contract basis for someone else?
Tim Cook: …Sure. I don’t think that there’s a fundamental reason why that couldn’t be done.
Much more, including the possibility of honoring Steve Jobs as Apple’s new headquarters opens, in the full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the “Apple Car” ever arrives, it will offer unique aspects that set it apart from the rest of the market in such a way as to command a premium.