Tim Cook on Apple Watch Expectations, Steve Jobs' Legacy at Apple, Living 'Outside the Box'

In an exclusive Q&A with Fast Company, Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses the upcoming Apple Watch, how Steve Jobs informs Apple's future, and how Apple lives "outside the box."

After highlighting some features of the Apple Watch, Cook declares that the smartwatch will be the first one that matters.

We weren’t first on the MP3 player; we weren’t first on the tablet; we weren’t first on the smartphone. But we were arguably the first modern smartphone, and we will be the first modern smartwatch—the first one that matters.


Cook dismissed concerns that some customers don't see the usefulness of the Watch.

Yes, but people didn’t realize they had to have an iPod, and they really didn’t realize they had to have the iPhone. And the iPad was totally panned. Critics asked, "Why do you need this?" Honestly, I don’t think anything revolutionary that we have done was predicted to be a hit when released. It was only in retrospect that people could see its value. Maybe this will be received the same way.

Fast Company also questioned Cook about the Apple ecosystem and if it's becoming difficult to manage due to rapidly size (ie iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs, Watch, iTunes, Cloud, etc), citing difficulties Microsoft faced. Cook notes that part of Microsoft's problem was that they didn't want to walk away from legacy stuff.

Apple has always had the discipline to make the bold decision to walk away. We walked away from the floppy disk when that was popular with many users. Instead of doing things in the more traditional way of diversifying and minimizing risk, we took out the optical drive, which some people loved. We changed our connector, even though many people loved the 30-pin connector. Some of these things were not popular for quite a while. But you have to be willing to lose sight of the shore and go. We still do that.


Cook doesn't feel the engineering challenge is too great for the company.

No, because we don’t live in the box. We are outside of that. What I see is that we have to continually have the discipline to define the problem so that it can be done. If you try to engineer to the complexity, then it does become the impossible dream. But if you step back and think about the problem differently, think about what you’re really trying to do, then I don’t think it becomes an impossible task at all.

Cook also shared some details about Steve Jobs office at Apple Headquarters, how his core values are still there at Apple, and plans for Apple Campus 2.

Check out the full interview at the link below...

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