Apple CEO Tim Cook had one of the most lengthy and in-depth interviews he’s had since the announcement of his position as the new CEO of Apple. During that particular dialogue, he addresses a lot of the issues Apple had to deal with this past year. Through this interview in Bloomberg Businessweek, the CEO was able to tackle many topics that covered his future plans for Apple, and how they dealt with matters this year.
This year for Apple
It’s been a year of ups and downs for Apple. They released at least two batches of upgraded products, which had reviews ranging from “pointless” to “you have to get this product now”. They had that widely-publicized patents issue against Samsung; and while they won their lawsuit, it triggered a patent-happy discussion and debate over the other well-known brands. These conversations covered everything from Microsoft getting patents for physical design before the Surface was officially out to the LTE capability that most smartphones have but Apple’s iPhone doesn’t, an omission that is a great disadvantage to an otherwise efficient business phone. And those events are just the “highlight” reel of the year for Apple. Tim Cook covered more in his interview.
Apple to provide more transparency
One of the major issues Cook tackled in his interview is his plans to urge the company towards greater transparency. He wants more of Apple’s “good work” broadcasted better so that other companies may follow their example. While this doesn’t mean that he is planning on completely taking away secrecy for Apple in terms of its plans for the business, he feels that some transparency in these areas could help charitable organizations.
The 100-million-dollar investment
It was recently reported that Apple has set aside 100 million USD for the manufacturing division of the company. Tim Cook says that manufacturing is moving to the US (it was primarily run in China), and that there will be a major effort to manufacture Macs in America. They are looking for manufacturing partners who can aid them in doing this (Cook states Apple can’t do it themselves), hence the allotted 100 million.
The Maps
Probably one of the biggest issues for the company, the Maps application is by far the biggest blow to Apple. The experience had been so laughably atrocious for so many users that Australia issued a warning against using the maps due to “serious risk of harm”, and it became the subject of endless memes and outright lambasting by the online community.
Nevertheless, Apple recognizes the shortcomings of the Maps app, and it continues to work on it in order to give the customers precisely what they want to see in a native Apple product. This disproves prior theories that Google Maps had been removed because of Google’s encroaching influence.
Apple’s Strategy
Cook was also asked about Apple’s tablet strategy as opposed to the strategies of Samsung, Microsoft, and Amazon. According to Cook, they are aiming to make Apple’s tablets more product-centric, defining every detail, as opposed to Android’s own plan of using various parts from different companies. Apple aims to manufacture every element of their devices themselves.
Cook touched on more topics during his interview, but there is no mistaking this man’s agenda: He’s not only planning on keeping Apple afloat, he’s also planning on making sure it breaks even more ground than it already has.
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