Apple remains ahead of its rivals in the ability to innovate and “create magic” despite tougher competition in key sectors like smartphones and tablets, chief executive officer Tim Cook said on Tuesday.
Cook said Apple still has strong growth opportunities because of its ability to work simultaneously on hardware, software and services, brushing aside suggestions that Apple has passed its peak.
“Apple has the ability to innovate in all three of these spheres and create magic,” Cook said during a question-and-answer session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
“This isn’t something you can just write a check for. This is something you build over decades,” he said.
Cook declined to talk about any new products, but said he remains upbeat on Apple’s ability to boost sales of its popular iPhones and iPads in markets around the world.
“I’m incredibly bullish about the future and what Apple can do,” he said. “Apple has skills in hardware, in software and in services ... There is no better place for innovation.”
He said Apple was not planning to make a “cheap” product that failed to live up to its standards, but that he was aware that some consumers could not afford some Apple devices.
“Our North Star is always great products, not how to hit a price point,” he said.
He maintained that Apple’s iPhone has “tremendous momentum” in a market which is expected to triple in the coming years.
“The iPhone is available only to around 50 percent of the subscribers in the world,” he said when asked if Apple had reached a plateau. “I see a wide open field. I don’t think about that word called limit.”
When asked if Apple was being overtaken by rivals, he maintained that the appeal is not based on a single details such as screen size or processor speed.
“Customers want a great experience, and they want quality, and they want that ‘aha’ moment,” he said. “What Apple does is sweat every detail ... The customer experience is always broader than what can be defined by a simple number.”
He said Apple’s iPads have outsold the entire line of computermaker Hewlett-Packard and that this market is still growing, even though Apple’s market share has slipped.
He argued that in terms of usage, the iPad has been measured to be used “twice as much as the total of every Android device ... It’s because it’s an incredible experience.”
Asked about a recently filed shareholder lawsuit, Cook said the company was examining ways to distribute more cash to shareholders, but claimed the litigation was “a silly sideshow.”
“This is a waste of shareholder money,” he said of the suit filed by Greenlight Capital, which seeks to block a shareholder vote that includes a management-backed proposal to make it impossible for the Apple board to issue preferred stock without shareholder approval.
Cook said it was “an incredible privilege” to be in the position of deciding what to do with the company’s US$137 billion cash stockpile, and maintained that “we will do so deliberately and thoughtfully.”
However, he maintained that the lawsuit was not about returning cash, but about “the right of shareholders” to authorize any special stock issue.
“Frankly, I find it bizarre that we would find ourselves being sued for doing something that’s good for shareholders,” he said, adding that the company would likely seek shareholder approval even if not required.
“My preference would be for everyone on both sides of this would take the money they are spending and donate it to a worthy cause,” Cook said.
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
RSS