Tim Cook confident Apple will emerge strongly from COVID-19 crisis
Apple CEO Tim Cook held an all-hands virtual meeting Thursday to discuss COVID-19's impact and the company's plans to return to normalcy, indicating that its pace on new products hasn't slowed.
Apple CEO Tim Cook remains upbeat about Apple's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected Apple's entire workforce since March, when the company shuttered all brick-and-mortar retail locations and instructed employees across its offices to begin working from home.
While Cook called the pandemic an "uncertain and stressful moment" during Thursday's meeting, he remained hopeful that Apple would emerge strongly from the crisis, employees who attended the conference told Bloomberg.
The Apple executive said that the company entered the pandemic with a strong financial position, and maintained that it would continue to invest in research and development, as well as new product offerings, in a "really significant way."
Recent product launches, like the MacBook Air, iPad Pro and iPhone SE, were also given by Cook as examples that Apple's pace isn't being disrupted by the global crisis.
Jeff Williams, Apple's COO, made some comments hinting at Apple's future plans. While speaking about the elevated importance of Apple's health tech initiatives, Williams said that the company's development in the space isn't "limited to the wrist."
At another point in the meeting, Cook gave examples of the company's ability to recover during crises. In 1998, when he first joined Apple, the company avoided a near-bankruptcy with the debut of the original iMac. Right after the Great Recession in 2010, Apple responded by launching the first iPad.
Cook said that Apple has been impacted by COVID-19, but added that he is focused on running the company for the long-term. He noted that the company's plan is to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic similarly to its recoveries in 1998 and 2008.
When asked about job cuts, Cook reiterated the company's strong financial position and said that Apple is continuing to pay retail employees while stores are shut down. Retail staffers are reportedly starting online training and virtual meetups ahead of store re-openings.
As far as when Apple employees might return to work, Cook said he didn't know but added that when offices and stores do reopen, coronavirus-curbing measures like social distancing and temperature checks will probably be in place. Coronavirus tests are a possibility, but Cook added that there aren't any plans to deploy them at this point.
Cook also explained some of Apple's efforts to help fight COVID-19, including monetary contributions and new face shields. As of Thursday, Cook said Apple has donated more than 30 million masks and shipped about 2 million of its face shields.
Apple CEO Tim Cook remains upbeat about Apple's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected Apple's entire workforce since March, when the company shuttered all brick-and-mortar retail locations and instructed employees across its offices to begin working from home.
While Cook called the pandemic an "uncertain and stressful moment" during Thursday's meeting, he remained hopeful that Apple would emerge strongly from the crisis, employees who attended the conference told Bloomberg.
The Apple executive said that the company entered the pandemic with a strong financial position, and maintained that it would continue to invest in research and development, as well as new product offerings, in a "really significant way."
Recent product launches, like the MacBook Air, iPad Pro and iPhone SE, were also given by Cook as examples that Apple's pace isn't being disrupted by the global crisis.
Jeff Williams, Apple's COO, made some comments hinting at Apple's future plans. While speaking about the elevated importance of Apple's health tech initiatives, Williams said that the company's development in the space isn't "limited to the wrist."
At another point in the meeting, Cook gave examples of the company's ability to recover during crises. In 1998, when he first joined Apple, the company avoided a near-bankruptcy with the debut of the original iMac. Right after the Great Recession in 2010, Apple responded by launching the first iPad.
Cook said that Apple has been impacted by COVID-19, but added that he is focused on running the company for the long-term. He noted that the company's plan is to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic similarly to its recoveries in 1998 and 2008.
When asked about job cuts, Cook reiterated the company's strong financial position and said that Apple is continuing to pay retail employees while stores are shut down. Retail staffers are reportedly starting online training and virtual meetups ahead of store re-openings.
As far as when Apple employees might return to work, Cook said he didn't know but added that when offices and stores do reopen, coronavirus-curbing measures like social distancing and temperature checks will probably be in place. Coronavirus tests are a possibility, but Cook added that there aren't any plans to deploy them at this point.
Cook also explained some of Apple's efforts to help fight COVID-19, including monetary contributions and new face shields. As of Thursday, Cook said Apple has donated more than 30 million masks and shipped about 2 million of its face shields.
Comments
Some people have nothing but negativity to contribute. In my book, these kind of people are called losers.
I see nothing but an extremely positive outlook for Apple going ahead. That doesn't mean that every single thing that they make is 100% perfect or that there is nothing to criticize, but overall, when you look at the big picture, they are doing great. Nobody cares about the anecdotal opinions of disgruntled people who have special needs and are incapable of seeing the greater picture.
The facts are that Apple remains as strong as ever, virus or no virus. AAPL isn't even that far away from $300 again, they've rebounded nicely. But who cares about that, all that stuff was just temporary anyway.
Apple has a strong product lineup across the board and they continue to release new products all of the time, with the latest being the second gen iPhone SE of course, which is ready for preorder in just some hours from now. I'm glad to see that the shitty virus doesn't seem to have affected Apple's release plans.
The latest Apple product that I bought was a pair of AirPod Pros about a month ago and I'm pretty happy with them. I like the noise cancellation on them and I'll be using them tomorrow when taking a walk. It almost drowns out all of the cars and traffic on the street, and there are a lot of cars on the streets where I am. A person should of course be aware of their surroundings when using that feature. Dummies should not use that feature.
The future is looking so bright for Apple, they're gonna have to wear shades.
I don't think the longer refresh times for the iMac and Mac mini are a product of neglect so much as the reality of computing. The standard computer market is really mature and there are not big technical jumps as frequently as there once were. They have modern IO and they get the occasional spec bump. There isn't much else to do there. I mean the biggest complaint he has on the iMac front is that it has the same design as it has for years. He hasn't said what is wrong with the design and seems to be arguing that it should be changed for the sake fo changing it. Since that has zilch to do with performance or usability I'd argue it's a really minor complaint.
I think the notion that Apple intends for the Mac Pro to fail is kinda ridiculous. Why would any company set out to have such a high profile failure? Why would a company spend the time, effort and capital to fail? Apple has had no issues killing products that it no longer saw as viable even when it has pissed off a part of their user base. Newton, eMate, Xserve, Xserve Raid, Cube, Cinema Display line... In none of those cases to they go though some convoluted process to make the product fail so they could get rid of it. They just got rid of it.