Cook says Apple to enter 'new categories' with upcoming devices
In an update to a report published earlier on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal said Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the company is hard at work on devices any "reasonable" person would consider to be new product categories.
Apple CEO Tim Cook during an interview at the D11 conference.
The statement is nothing new for Cook, nor is his refusal to offer further details, but it does add color to circulating rumors regarding "new product categories" like wearable devices, mobile payments and hardware.
"There will be new categories," Cook told the WSJ in an interview at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. "We're not ready to talk about it, but we're working on some really great stuff."
The excerpt was added to a report earlier today regarding Apple's repurchase of
$14 billion worth of AAPL shares over the past two weeks, a move made as part of its capital return program.
Cook would not comment when pressed on whether these new categories were improvements on existing products or completely new hardware and services. He did, however, add that anyone "reasonable" would consider the products to be new categories for Apple.
The Apple chief still considers the firm a "growth company," noting opportunities to expand marketshare with existing products like the iPhone. While Apple's handset takes a healthy portion of the global smartphone market -- not to mention the iPad's domination in the tablet sector -- there remains room for improvement.
According to the latest statistics from Kantar WorldPanel, iOS growth is contracting while Android continues to amass more users. Research firm Strategy Analytics concurred in its fourth quarter 2013 findings, noting a 4.4 percent dip in worldwide marketshare for the iPhone year-to-year as sales of cheaper offerings from smaller OEMs grow.
Cook toed the company line, stressing once again that Apple focuses on quality over quantity. He did mention that previous statements about Apple not wanting to make the most phones have been misconstrued.
"I don't view that as being satisfied with being small or however you want to define it," Cook said. "I just want to say that the macro thing for us is making a great product and we must do that. If we can't do that, we're not going to force ourselves to hit a price point that makes us produce a product that we're not proud of because we lose who we are in that. We're not going to do that."
Apple CEO Tim Cook during an interview at the D11 conference.
The statement is nothing new for Cook, nor is his refusal to offer further details, but it does add color to circulating rumors regarding "new product categories" like wearable devices, mobile payments and hardware.
"There will be new categories," Cook told the WSJ in an interview at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. "We're not ready to talk about it, but we're working on some really great stuff."
The excerpt was added to a report earlier today regarding Apple's repurchase of
$14 billion worth of AAPL shares over the past two weeks, a move made as part of its capital return program.
Cook would not comment when pressed on whether these new categories were improvements on existing products or completely new hardware and services. He did, however, add that anyone "reasonable" would consider the products to be new categories for Apple.
The Apple chief still considers the firm a "growth company," noting opportunities to expand marketshare with existing products like the iPhone. While Apple's handset takes a healthy portion of the global smartphone market -- not to mention the iPad's domination in the tablet sector -- there remains room for improvement.
According to the latest statistics from Kantar WorldPanel, iOS growth is contracting while Android continues to amass more users. Research firm Strategy Analytics concurred in its fourth quarter 2013 findings, noting a 4.4 percent dip in worldwide marketshare for the iPhone year-to-year as sales of cheaper offerings from smaller OEMs grow.
Cook toed the company line, stressing once again that Apple focuses on quality over quantity. He did mention that previous statements about Apple not wanting to make the most phones have been misconstrued.
"I don't view that as being satisfied with being small or however you want to define it," Cook said. "I just want to say that the macro thing for us is making a great product and we must do that. If we can't do that, we're not going to force ourselves to hit a price point that makes us produce a product that we're not proud of because we lose who we are in that. We're not going to do that."
Comments
Categories - plural... mmm... this should give us plenty of opportunity for speculation, which regardless we're always capable of engaging in.
Want to quit playing defense and start playing offense!
Just curious are other companies asked about whether the stuff they're working on is improvements to existing products or new categories? It seems like Apple is the only company where this question is constantly asked. I can't remember the last time Google or Microsoft was asked this question.
In the blind eyes of the media and Wall Street, Apple is the only company not innovating right now. To them things like the Surface, Google buying Nest, driverless cars, Google Glass, etc., is far more innovative than anything Apple is doing. Whether or not it has any basis in reality is irrelevant, unfortunately.
He said the same thing last year, and all we got were updates of existing products. Tim needs to stop with the red herrings, and focus on actually releasing new products in new categories.
Here comes Apple's answer to Google Glasses!
The iEye!
No, but I bet he [B][I][URL=http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line]toed[/URL][/I][/B] it.
Good thing bloggers aren't coders; their apps would never even compile.
In all fairness I consider driverless cars innovative. And google glass.
In all fairness I consider driverless cars innovative. And google glass.
In all fairness, I agree with the comment about Google Glasses.
I think Augmented Reality Glasses is a brilliant idea as long as it is implemented correctly while still giving consideration for an individual's privacy.
Not that it really matters, but they won't be getting any of my money if I have to wear the product...
How about carried?
How about carried?
According to the latest statistics from Kantar WorldPanel, iOS growth is contracting while Android continues to amass more users. Research firm Strategy Analytics concurred in its fourth quarter 2013 findings, noting a 4.4 percent dip in worldwide marketshare for the iPhone year-to-year as sales of cheaper offerings from smaller OEMs grow.
Yes, Apple's share is suffering from catastrophic collapse...unless you look at the fact that Apple continues to gain share in the total mobile market...
Where is Android taking share from? Not iOS but feature phones. As long as Apple grows sales faster than the total handset market it's doing okay.
For all we know, Apple may be surreptitiously working on its own versions of driverless cars, wearable tech glasses, and perhaps other products we can't even conceive yet. You see, Apple chooses to keep its R&D projects secret, even to many of its own employees. So is it fair to be prejudiced against future Apple innovations, just because they don't care to blabber about what's in the works as a matter of their own POLICY? I think their track record of groundbreaking products, and R&D DNA and corporate culture are sufficient to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Apple will soon be getting into selling insurance, heavy equipment, appliances, etc...
Yes, Apple's share is suffering from catastrophic collapse...unless you look at the fact that Apple continues to gain share in the total mobile market...
Where is Android taking share from? Not iOS but feature phones. As long as Apple grows sales faster than the total handset market it's doing okay.
I don't know the figures for the world phone market, but for the past two years Apple iPhone's share of all US mobile phone subscribers has increased by over 7 percentage points each year -- from 10.2% in Sept 11 to 17.5% in Sept 12 to 25.1% in Sept 13.
Not that it really matters, but they won't be getting any of my money if I have to wear the product...
What if it's part of your clothes, as against glasses or jewellery?