Apple CEO talks Steve Jobs, TV and the competition
Tim Cook will never be Steve Jobs. The Apple (AAPL) CEO would be the first to tell you that, as he made clear to Charlie Rose in an in-depth interview taped on Friday.
Jobs cast a very long shadow as the legendary co-founder of Apple , and it's one Cook still has not entirely escaped. But Cook has come into his own as chief executive of the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization. He is fresh off a week in which he introduced some important new products that are uniquely his own, including a digital wallet system and a multi-faceted smartwatch.
Cook sat down with Rose to talk in a two-part interview, the first of which aired Friday. The second part is scheduled to air Monday night on PBS.
That Cook would give Rose so much time is interesting in and of itself. Cook is an intensely private CEO and not given to tooting his own horn. He doesn't normally open up to the media in meaningful ways. That makes their discussion a must-see for Apple investors and for those considering buying shares, which closed Friday at $101.66.
Here are some highlights from the first half of the interview:
On improving television: Apple watchers are sure the company is cooking up a groundbreaking new TV product. Cook was coy about the details, however, saying only that "we continue to have great interest" in the area. The current way people watch TV is "stuck back in the '70s," he said, adding that it "almost feels like you're rewinding the clock and you've entered a time capsule, and you're going backwards."
On his predecessor: It's significant that Apple has continued to maintain Jobs' office, just as it was, on the fourth floor. Jobs' name is still on the door. Jobs knew that Cook was not a clone of himself when he picked Cook to lead the company, Cook said. "He obviously thought through that deeply, about who he wanted to lead Apple."
On the new Apple Watch and iPhone 6: The watch is "the most personal device we've ever created," he said. It's a new way of communicating and connecting with people. He described the iPhone 6 as "the biggest advance in iPhone history."
On Amazon.com (AMZN): Cook seemed to have little interest in Amazon, a company that has been slowly getting more competitive with Apple through its release of its Kindle Fire tablet and Fire phone. "They've come up with a phone -- you don't see it in a lot of places," he said. "They're not a product company."
The real competition: It's Google (GOOG). It's not Samsung or Amazon because they only make the hardware for phones. Google makes the Android software platform for use in those phones.
On the recently leaked celebrity nude photos: Apple's iCloud network was not hacked, Cook said. "There's a misunderstanding about this. If you think about what hacking iCloud would mean, it means somebody . . . would get into the cloud and could go fish around in people's accounts. That didn't happen."
One of his talents: "One great skill I have is blocking noise," Cook said. Everyone is on the sidelines telling him what he should and shouldn't do, he added. "I think if you get caught up in the noise as a CEO, you're going to be a terrible CEO."