Tim Cook Interview
Bloomberg Businessweek just published the entire interview with Tim Cook, Apple CEO (you can read the full interview following this link). Earlier this week Bloomberg Businessweek has a very interesting conversation with Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Craig Federighi; we now get an first look at Tim Cook’s interview.
In the interview Tim Cook addresses the iPhone 5S’ fingerprint sensor based Touch ID system. Apple’s CEO is pleased that users are able to unlock their iPhone 5S using only their finger(print). However Cook does hint that purchases made using the Touch ID system are the most important aspect of the technology. As Tim Cook mentions, you can use Touch ID to download items from Apple’s online media stores, but as technology matures, purchases will become more important: “You know, the first time that you buy something with your finger, it’s pretty profound. It’s one thing to use it as security. This is really cool, and a lot of people will love it, because they open their phone multiple times a day. But the buying is even a more startling experience, in a way“.
While sharing details regarding the new iPhone’s features, Tim Cook also mentioned some interesting aspects regarding the development and integration of iOS 7 with the cheaper iPhone model, the iPhone 5C: “And somebody thought through the wallpaper. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like you were putting on your shirt and your pants, and they actually matched or made some sense with each other? You know? Technology companies don’t think of those things, or, usual technology companies don’t think of those things. Nobody worries about buttons and finishes. Nobody really worries about the experience, and we do. We’re really proud that we do“.
Regarding the cheaper iPhone 5C, Tim Cook also says that it wasn’t about increasing market share or going for a certain (low) price point; he says the iPhone 5C was made with the idea of offering more options to customers and making the iPhone line available to a larger segment of consumers.
Besides the Touch ID system and the design of the two newly released iPhone models, Cook also talked about iOS Duopoly with Android. Tim Cook states that the mobile smartphone Operating System market is a battle between two companies: Google and Apple. Apple’s CEO does not consider Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile Operating System to be a strong enough competitor: “For smartphones, I think it’s even more a two operating system world today than it was before. Maybe that changes. Maybe it doesn’t, but that is the state of things today. I think that Android is more fragmented than ever and, as a result, when you look at things like customer satisfaction and usage, you see the gap between Android and iOS being huge“.
Speaking of Android framgentation, Apple’s CEO aded: “Yes. And it’s just not growing in the—it’s not like a baby that becomes an infant. It’s not like that. It’s an exponential. It’s a compounding problem. And think about all these people that they’re leaving behind from a customer point of view. People do hold on. Most people hold on to their phones a couple of years. They enter a contract and honor that contract and then upgrade after that two-year period. So in essence, by the time they buy the phone, many of these operating systems are old. They’re not the latest ones by the time people buy. And so by the time they exit, they’re using an operating system that’s three or four years old. That would be like me right now having in my pocket iOS 3. I can’t imagine it“.
