10 Latest Facts About Apple Revealed By Tim Cook

#10 On patents and on end game for the Apple-Samsung spat

When asked what would it take to settle with Samsung? “I’m not negotiating this evening. I don’t like them any more than I did last year. I don’t want copying. It’s a values thing. This is about values at the end of the day,” Cook said.

#9 On new iOS

“I think I will wait and let you see it,” Cook said. When asked if it’s a big update to iOS, Cook said, “I think I will let you be the judge. Jony Ive has been a key to this”, Cook said. He also notes that there needs to be a blend of hardware, software and services. “Having Ive do software and hardware rather than just hardware is part of this, even if Apple always married those.”

#8 On His Leadership Style

When asked how he is different from Jobs on being a leader, Cook said he is different in a ton of ways, “but the most important things are the same.”

#7 On Upcoming Products

“We release products when they are ready. We believe very much in the element of surprise. We think customers love surprises. I have no plan on changing that.” When asked about maps. Mapping is a complex thing, Cook said. “We have an enormous investment going on maps,” he said, noting many improvements in the last several months. “We think location is very important.”

Is Apple Maps fixed to your satisfaction? “We messed it up,” Cook said. “It’s greatly improved, but not there yet. We have more to do.”

#6 On Falling Stock Value

“If you look at the stock, which is a lot of what people focus on, the stock price has been frustrating. It’s been frustrating for investors and for all of us. This, too, is not unprecedented.”

Then he added that, “The beauty of being around for a while is you see a lot of cycles. At the end of 2007, Apple’s stock price was $200. It was $75 a couple years later. What we have to do is focus on products — making the best products, and if we do that right, then the other things will happen.”

#5 On Android

When asked about Android’s dominance in the Smartphone market, he said he had  taken notice of it and added, “Winning at Apple, though, isn’t about making the most. Arguably, we make the best PC. We don’t make the most.” “They (Android) do make the most music players and tablets, but not the most phones,” he said.

Cook rattles off more usage stats showing that usage of Apple products outpaces even Apple’s large market share. “What the numbers suggest over and over again is that people are using our products more. That’s what we are all about. We want to enrich people’s lives.”

“Globally, there are a lot of phones that are labeled as Smartphones but are used more like feature phones, Cook said. Some tablets are being bought and not used because the experience is not great.” Cook said his iPad now handles a significant amount of his computing work, “It’s changed the game. I don’t hear that from people that have Android tablets,” he added.

#4 On Wearable Technology

When asked whether Google Glass going to be the big thing with people, Cook said, “As for Google Glass, it’s probably not likely to be a mass-market item, Cook said. It’s probably more likely to appeal to certain markets.”

But wearables as a broader market, Cook said, could be a profoundly interesting area of technology. “I’m interested in a great product. I wear glasses because I have to. I can’t see without them. I don’t know a lot of people that wear them that don’t have to.”

But when asked what technology could be big when it comes to wearable gadgets, “The wrist is interesting,” Cook said, noting that it is more natural. “You still have to convince people it is worth wearing.”

It’s not just about the wrist, Cook said, “The whole sensor field is going to explode,” he said. “It’s a little all over the place right now. With the arc of time, it will become clearer.”

#3 On Apple  as a company capable of changing the game. It has been a while.

“We’re still the company that is going to do that. We have some incredible plans that we have been working on for a while. The culture is all still there, and many of the people are still there. We have several more game changers in us.”

When he was asked if it was Apple TV that he was talking about, he said “We’re still playing in TV through Apple TV. For several years we were selling a few hundred thousand. We’ve now sold 13 million — about half of those in the last year. It’s been good for customers, but also for learning for Apple. Customers would agree there are things about television that aren’t so great.” He did not shed any light on what Apple has achieved till now when it comes to TV, but he only said that the company has grand vision and it is an area of great interest.

#2 On Apple’s Alleged Tax Gimmicks

“We don’t use tax gimmicks,” Cook said. But when he was confronted by saying he takes advantage of the system, and it looks like a gimmick for a common man, Cook said “It’s a Band-Aid-and-paper-clip kind of thing. Over the years, Congress has kept Band-Aiding it.”

When Cook was told about Apple paying $6 billion in U.S. taxes — more than anyone else, and when he was questioned about a plan that might even have Apple pay a bit more, that could repatriate all that cash it has offshore, like Ireland, “We have no special deal with the Irish government. I believe, based on the hearing that, simplistically, the thing that’s being debated is for a company like Apple or any other company that sells things across the world and develops them in the United States, some people believe that all of the profits all around the world should accrue to the U.S. and be taxed here,” he added. He said the company will co-operate with tax officers.

#1 On Apple Being In Trouble

Apple has/is facing some of the challenges for a while now, be it Samsung and Android’s dominance, or anti trust and tax issues with the government or the falling share value which made Apple lose its ‘world’s most valuable company’ title. Definitely, all this points at one thing: Apple is in big trouble. But Time cook said ‘absolutely not,’ and added “We are a product company so we think about products,” and he said that the company sold 85 million iPhones last quarter; iPad, 42 million. He also added that customers love the products and customer satisfaction numbers are off the chart, and the usage numbers, based on Web traffic, far outpaced its market share, “I look at that and say, I feel pretty good.”

And when asked about Apple’s competition with Samsung he said that, “from my point of view, over my long tenure at Apple, not as CEO, we’ve always had competent rivals. We fought against Microsoft — still fight against Microsoft, particularly in the PC space. We fought against hardware companies thought to be really tough, like Dell.”

“We’ve always suited up and fought. Apple has always had competition to focus on, but our North Star is always on making the best products. We always come back to that. We want to do the best phone, the best tablet, the best PC. I think we’re doing that,” he added.