Tim Cook talks Apple innovation, health, and Steve Jobs in candid interview
Apple CEO Tim Cook has guest-edited the latest edition of Popular Mechanics, and in an interview explains just how he thinks Steve Jobs would view the company today.
Following Jony Ive's guest editing of the Financial Times magazine about design, Tim Cook has taken over Popular Mechanics -- and revealed it is a favorite.
"[Popular Mechanics] answered the question 'How?' a lot," he says in the full paywalled interview. "And it explored things that I was terribly interested in, from cars to space travel. It got me interested in the 50-in-1 Tandy Science Fair Radio Shack kit."
"And I think it's so awesome that it has survived over 100 years, that the magazine could evolve and still be for hobbyists and tinkerers-- the computer business got started in the same way," he continued. "The people who were originally interested in computers were hobbyists and tinkerers."
Cook was asked about how the computer industry moved from "tinkerers" to where it is today and how a company like Apple comes up with its ideas.
"They don't take any singular route, they can come from everywhere in the company," he said. "We believe in putting groups of people together focused on solving some problem for a user."
"You pick diverse teams that look at the problem through different lenses," continued Cook. "We debate about things that we do and do not do, because we know we can only do a few things well."
"You have to debate and say no to a lot of great ideas so that you can spend your time on the ones that are truly unbelievable," he said. "[Usually] the way that you get people around here to do something is to tell them you're not sure it's doable."
"That's the red flag in front of the bull, because a lot of people here don't take 'impossible' as being true," said Cook. "If we convince ourselves it's in the best interest of the user, that's a compelling force for us to power through the problem."
One example he gives of how Apple products regularly make him feel "like a kid in a candy store," is the move to Apple Silicon.
"We were just talking in the hallway about M2 and M1 -- the history there goes back well over a decade," said Cook. "It goes back to the genesis of the M chips, or the A chips, from iPhone and really getting in and figuring out, how do you put a powerful chip in something that small and not get it to heat up and burn up?"
"We found ourselves with a similar issue for laptops: How do you put something in there that is the most powerful computer chip in the world?" he continued. "Out of that was born M1, and now we've taken it further with M2. And Mac is now a totally different product than it was before."
Steve Jobs with the original Mac
Cook says that Steve Jobs originally wanted to put a Mac in every classroom. "Later, we revised that for everyone within the classroom to have their own Mac," he added.
Beyond the Mac, Apple is now known for health -- and Cook has previously said that may be what Apple is remembered for. In this new interview, he says that Apple just wanted to encourage people to exercise more.
"We added coaching to that to prompt people -- you may get a notification that you only need to walk another 12 minutes today to close your rings," he said. "I get a lot of notes from people saying how motivating it is. They've closed their rings for 365 days straight. This is amazing -- I don't close mine 365 days straight."
With Apple now spread out across health, services, and multiple platforms, Cook was asked what he thought Steve Jobs would think of the company today.
"I think he would find things that he loved and things that he would say, 'We can do better on that,'" said Cook. "I think he would do both. As we all do. We are never really satisfied. We're always working on tomorrow."
"I think about him a lot. I miss him dearly," Cook continued. "He would always stop by my office on his way out. And there's never been a replacement for that."
"We would exchange tidbits on the day and talk about the future... and we try to carry on the mission that he set in place, to build the best products in the world that enrich people's lives," he said. "And that hasn't changed. Lots of things change with time. But the reason for our being is the same."
Tim Cook's interview is part of a special Popular Mechanics edition about what he describes as "responsible innovation."
"At Apple, we believe that we have a responsibility to leave the world better than we found it," Cook explains in his editorial. "And that's why we put our values at the center of everything we do."
Read on AppleInsider
Following Jony Ive's guest editing of the Financial Times magazine about design, Tim Cook has taken over Popular Mechanics -- and revealed it is a favorite.
"[Popular Mechanics] answered the question 'How?' a lot," he says in the full paywalled interview. "And it explored things that I was terribly interested in, from cars to space travel. It got me interested in the 50-in-1 Tandy Science Fair Radio Shack kit."
"And I think it's so awesome that it has survived over 100 years, that the magazine could evolve and still be for hobbyists and tinkerers-- the computer business got started in the same way," he continued. "The people who were originally interested in computers were hobbyists and tinkerers."
Cook was asked about how the computer industry moved from "tinkerers" to where it is today and how a company like Apple comes up with its ideas.
"They don't take any singular route, they can come from everywhere in the company," he said. "We believe in putting groups of people together focused on solving some problem for a user."
"You pick diverse teams that look at the problem through different lenses," continued Cook. "We debate about things that we do and do not do, because we know we can only do a few things well."
"You have to debate and say no to a lot of great ideas so that you can spend your time on the ones that are truly unbelievable," he said. "[Usually] the way that you get people around here to do something is to tell them you're not sure it's doable."
"That's the red flag in front of the bull, because a lot of people here don't take 'impossible' as being true," said Cook. "If we convince ourselves it's in the best interest of the user, that's a compelling force for us to power through the problem."
One example he gives of how Apple products regularly make him feel "like a kid in a candy store," is the move to Apple Silicon.
"We were just talking in the hallway about M2 and M1 -- the history there goes back well over a decade," said Cook. "It goes back to the genesis of the M chips, or the A chips, from iPhone and really getting in and figuring out, how do you put a powerful chip in something that small and not get it to heat up and burn up?"
"We found ourselves with a similar issue for laptops: How do you put something in there that is the most powerful computer chip in the world?" he continued. "Out of that was born M1, and now we've taken it further with M2. And Mac is now a totally different product than it was before."
Steve Jobs with the original Mac
Cook says that Steve Jobs originally wanted to put a Mac in every classroom. "Later, we revised that for everyone within the classroom to have their own Mac," he added.
Beyond the Mac, Apple is now known for health -- and Cook has previously said that may be what Apple is remembered for. In this new interview, he says that Apple just wanted to encourage people to exercise more.
"We added coaching to that to prompt people -- you may get a notification that you only need to walk another 12 minutes today to close your rings," he said. "I get a lot of notes from people saying how motivating it is. They've closed their rings for 365 days straight. This is amazing -- I don't close mine 365 days straight."
With Apple now spread out across health, services, and multiple platforms, Cook was asked what he thought Steve Jobs would think of the company today.
"I think he would find things that he loved and things that he would say, 'We can do better on that,'" said Cook. "I think he would do both. As we all do. We are never really satisfied. We're always working on tomorrow."
"I think about him a lot. I miss him dearly," Cook continued. "He would always stop by my office on his way out. And there's never been a replacement for that."
"We would exchange tidbits on the day and talk about the future... and we try to carry on the mission that he set in place, to build the best products in the world that enrich people's lives," he said. "And that hasn't changed. Lots of things change with time. But the reason for our being is the same."
Tim Cook's interview is part of a special Popular Mechanics edition about what he describes as "responsible innovation."
"At Apple, we believe that we have a responsibility to leave the world better than we found it," Cook explains in his editorial. "And that's why we put our values at the center of everything we do."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Cook is the ultimate logistics man, shortly to retire, who brought us the monstrosity of the Mac Studio. He also ejected Steve Job's equal, Johny Ive. The trajectory for Apple currently looks irrecoverable. Burn-up.
Where’s my Flying Car, Popular Mechanics? Been waiting since the 50s. (I’m Not that old but I could be).
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/g2021/history-of-flying-car/
But first - the interview piece is just paid company propaganda - not sure why AppleInsider would feel it’s worth posting and label it as ‘candid’. Nothing is revealed of Tim Cook. You’ll never get to learn who guys like that really are because they can’t afford that. Especially Cook and Apple - you can clearly see his marketing writing room weighing every damn word. All is scripted, nothing is real. Should I really believe he still often thinks about Steve Jobs?
Anyway….
I agree that it’s often not vision, but things like (design) values, perseverance, adaptability… In this world it’s even hard to predict the next 3 years. It’s never “vision” but a combination of traits and skills that a CEO needs to inject throughout the entire org.
However I do think getting rid of Ive was the best thing. His time was up, it didn’t work anymore. His focus on design hurt other aspects such as usability. And Apple demonstrated with the new iMac they can still come up with great designed products.
I do agree that the Mac Studio is a miss when it comes to design. It’s not elegant at all to stack Mac Minis on top and be done with it.
That doesn’t mean they’re on a descending trajectory as a company….
In those cases it would be better if he just didn't say anything at all.
The (last SJ) 2011 mini offered dual ram and storage slots, and with faster silicon and egpu could such a format be a better option...?
I have come around to asking if Mr. Cook's strength is a remarkable left brain zeitgeist that supported and worked in concert with the right brain zeitgeist of Ive, and whatever unique combination of such the man in the middle (Steve Jobs) may have had... Could it be challenging on so many fronts now to have lost both a lead and a muse...?
I have read that a 'core value' for Mr. Jobs was that profitability was essential in order to continue to create the best products for the customer, vs designing competitively to generate profit for the shareholders, and that the difference may seem subtle, yet fundamental...
In my opinion the Studio nicely fills a slot in Apple’s lineup for those folks who would otherwise have purchased a higher end iMac 27” but who were not big fans of having a build-in display or all-in-one design.
I’d vastly prefer having a Mac Studio with two or more matched high res monitors mounted on VESA arms than having an iMac with it’s big ‘ol chin that pairs aesthetically with nothing and a bundle of connections coming out the back of the arm mounted unit. Based on my experience any decent monitor will outlast the computational part of the iMac, even if just being able to stay current with the latest macOS version. Removing target display mode from iMac limits its lifetime, so you’re usually better off selling or donating the whole thing when it becomes “obsolete” for you.
Notice that I didn’t say that the Mac Studio is a cost effective substitute for the higher end iMacs. It’s not. When you factor in the cost of the monitor(s), keyboard, display mounting system (if applicable), and trackpad alone it is not a cheap ride. In fact, if or when Apple pushes out a Apple Silicon optimized Mac mini, the new mini will likely fulfill the needs of a number of folks who are also looking to transition away from an all-in-one Mac design. Add to that, Apple may very well bring back a large screen iMac to satisfy the needs of those who have no intentions of leaving the all-in-one Mac world behind.
I know we all like to talk about upgradability, but the only “upgrade” I’ve made to the last 4 Macs I’ve owned was to use a 3rd party board to allow me to reconfigure my 2014 Mac mini from HDD-only to a SSD-heavy Fusion setup, which transformed a total slug into a respectable machine that runs Monterey quite well. This mini was obviously not spec’d out well from the start - my bad. Other than that, my properly spec’d out Macs keep chugging along with exactly the same innards that they came with from the factory and continue to serve me well, other than being dead-ended on macOS version upgrades. Such is the nature of Macs. I’m confident that any decently spec’d out Mac Studio that I buy today will easily last me 5-8 years minimum and the 4K or better monitors will be around and a pleasure to use for at least a few years beyond that.
As much as I hate to say it, if upgradability is a serious concern for your productivity, profitability, or personal preference the only options you have with Apple is to buy a Mac Pro or buy a whole new Mac every few years. Does this mean Apple is gouging us with forced obsolescence? Hell no, because the number of Apple Mac customers who have such stringent needs is probably a tiny fraction of the total number of Mac buyers, most of whom are quite content to camp on the systems they buy for several years, which plays into the Apple TCO benefit very nicely and reliability. If the larger up-front cost of Macs over competitive systems wasn’t playing out well on the TCO side, I for one wouldn’t be lined up waiting for my next Mac to arrive.
Ah yes, academia, which is continually pumping out new technology into the marketplace faster than the marketplace itself. Ok....