Tim Cook: 2020 Was Apple's 'Top Year of Innovation Ever'

[MacRumors]

In an interview with He Shijie, a senior at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Apple CEO Tim Cook called 2020 Apple's "top year of innovation ever."

In 2020, Apple released a number of new products, ranging from the iPhone 12 lineup, to brand new iPads, the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE, and of course, new Apple Silicon Macs. Putting all of that together, Tim Cook says Apple innovated in 2020 more than any other year, but notes that "there's no formula for innovation."

Shijie asked Cook about the stress, and process that Apple goes through to release new products every year. The CEO says it's enabled largely by putting people with diverse skills, backgrounds, and passions together, allowing them to do their lives' best work, and that "one plus one has always been more than two at Apple."

What we do is we have a culture of creativity and a culture of collaboration. And these two things together, when they intersect, create enormous innovation. You put people together that have different skills, that look at the world differently, maybe they're from different places, they have different backgrounds. Some are hardware, some are software. Some are services. Some may be musicians and artists. But you put them all together on a common purpose, to design an incredible product, and it is amazing what can come out of it.

On the new iPhone 12 lineup, Cook says Apple's having "an incredible time with it," reiterating comments he made at the company's latest earnings call. Regarding the new Apple Silicon Macs, Cook called the performance of the M1 chip "jaw-dropping," and that "it screams. It's so fast."

Apple's business in China continues to be a backbone for the company. In Q4 of 2020, iPhone 12 sales in the country hit 18 million units, and Tim Cook called the response "phenomenal" earlier last month. Shijie, living in China, asked Cook about whether there are features that are based on customers' feedback from China. Cook named a few, including iOS 13 dark mode, QR readers, specific keyboards, and 5G.

There's a ton of features there that are. Whether it's specific keyboards, whether it's QR Code mode. 5G in a lot of ways was energized in China because China is so far ahead in the coverage model for 5G. Junction view in Maps because of the complex intersections and so forth. Night mode was another one where the inspiration for Night Mode came from China. And so we listen very carefully to our customers there and wind up creating things based on that, that is then given to the world. We get a lot of feedback from China.

Shijie also brought up the subject of his grandmother, who he notes is having a hard time learning how to use an iPhone. He asks Cook what Apple can do to "give wings to the elderly and to the digital world."

Well, we try really hard to design our products for everyone. And we try very hard to design the product like the mind works, so you don't have to have an instruction manual, you can pick it up and it works the way that you would think it would work. We have classes in Apple Retail, where we'd love to train your grandmother on using her iPhone right there in the class. And we have telephone support and so forth for people that need that. But our hope is and our desire is always to design the product in such a way that it works as you would expect it to do, so that no instruction is needed.

The remainder of the interview covers topics such as Cook's past trips to China and his love for interacting with people, the importance of education and expanding access to it around the world, and advice for people who are still seeking to find the job they love. You can watch the interview with English and Chinese subtitles here.

Article Link: Tim Cook: 2020 Was Apple's 'Top Year of Innovation Ever'

 

[hayden1250]

How good

 

[Eddy Munn]

Arguably not as good as 2007, 1998 or 1984.

 

[CHLFC]

It depends what type of Apple user you are. If you have a physical motor disability waiting for top innovations to make your Apple gear more accessible there were few top innovations by the company in the past year. My Apple gear, iPhone 12 Pro, Apple Watch 5 cellular, and MacBook Pro, remain as frustratingly inaccessible as ever and the daily struggle I have to access my Apple devices remains unchanged. A few examples: I can’t touch the iPhone screen. While Siri helps me place a phone call there is no hands-free option to end a call; Auto-answer helps me answer phone calls hands-free without the need to touch the screen and the green answer button but to toggle auto-answer on and off you have to, you guessed it, touch the screen. You can’t turn it on and off with Siri. Voice Control dictation remains poor, basic, unproductive and inaccurate. Try using it as your daily diver for anything more than a short message like “home in 5 minutes” and you will see what I mean. I am very much hoping Apple will innovate much more in accessibility for people with physical motor disabilities in 2021. There is much work to do

 

[martyjmclean]

Arguably not as good as 2007, 1998 or 1984.

No "new products" like those years, but the M1 has totally resuscitated the Mac. Let's be honest, Apple stopped caring about the Mac but now the Mac is exciting again and I can't wait for more innovation.

 

[sdz]

No "new products" like those years, but the M1 has totally resuscitated the Mac. Let's be honest, Apple stopped caring about the Mac but now the Mac is exciting again and I can't wait for more innovation.

Most Mac Users don't care about performance. PowerPC was slow as hell and people did not care.

 

[I7guy]

When discussing the words innovation and Apple, innovation is sometimes a personal definition (based on posts on MR). But what they did with the M1 chip and Mac is huuuuuge and that counts for a lot. So I agree with Mr. cook.

 

[martyjmclean]

Most Mac Users don't care about performance. PowerPC was slow as hell and people did not care.

Everybody cares about performance. PowerPC was faster than Intel, until it wasn't.

 

[Seanm87]

Seems strange that he claims it was Chinese customers that asked for dark mode. Im pretty sure it was universally wanted.

 

[ruka.snow]

Most Mac Users don't care about performance. PowerPC was slow as hell and people did not care.

PPC G5 and Athlon 64 traded blows with each other and crushed the Pentium 4. It was the Core (based on the Pentium 3) that Apple wanted, and they wanted it because the G5 was too hot to run in a laptop and that the G5 didn't hit 3 GHz.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

it was definitely the year of emojis 👍🏻

 

[Isengardtom]

Partly agree
The innovation was on the internals, not so much on the design side or on the new product category side
- Apple Watch still looks the same
- iMac still looks the same
- Macbooks still look the same
- iPhone : iPad Pro look copied
- iPad Air : iPad Pro look copied

now that’s not saying that’s bad (especially the iPad Pro design look is great I think), but the design on the mac side of things needs an update.

 

[44267547]

Seems strange that he claims it was Chinese customers that asked for dark mode. Im pretty sure it was universally wanted.

Did you read the article why Cook answered about China specifically? The interviewer (Shijie) asked Cook about feedback from China’s customer base. It’s literally in the article.

Reference:

“Shijie, living in China, asked Cook about whether there are features that are based on customers' feedback from China. Cook named a few, including iOS 13 dark mode, QR readers, specific keyboards, and 5G.”

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

I guess its clear - we mean something different if we talk about innovation.

i would have slighly agreed if there was a touch-screen Mac.

as an heavy iPad user i find myself more often touching the screen of my Mac - which is frightening

 

[miniyou64]

Mmmmm I doubt it

 

[yegon]

Iteration is the new innovation it seems.

 

[otternonsense]

No "new products" like those years, but the M1 has totally resuscitated the Mac. Let's be honest, Apple stopped caring about the Mac but now the Mac is exciting again and I can't wait for more innovation.

What's there to talk about other than the M1? Why doesn't any interviewer call out TC on his BS instead of acting like a starstruck ingenue?

 

[ian87w]

Hmm, many of the answers don't feel weighty, feels just fluff. I mean 5G inspired from China? More like the checks from Verizon being the "inspiration."

I do like the question about elderly, which Tim Cook failed (imo) to answer. Going to classes? Phone support? We're talking about a grandma here Tim. I hope Tim Cook took notes here. And not just elderly, but elderly in emerging/non-western markets where many of the features or support might not even be available. Although I commend Apple's effort in accessibility, I believe it would be great having some focus on the elderlies as that population is growing and is becoming the majority in many markets (Japan, S. Korea, and also China).

 

[calstanford]

Partly agree
The innovation was on the internals, not so much on the design side or on the new product category side
- Apple Watch still looks the same
- iMac still looks the same
- Macbooks still look the same
- iPhone : iPad Pro look copied
- iPad Air : iPad Pro look copied

now that’s not saying that’s bad (especially the iPad Pro design look is great I think), but the design on the mac side of things needs an update.

There's barely anything new on the inside too? Tim Cook is as always full of marketing BS when he gives these talks. Sadly.

Apple Watch - no change besides that 'oxygen' sensor
iMac - no change
Macbooks - the only big change, put the A14 as 'M1' in it. Yay! (though no other internals changed/no new form factor, boo)
iPhone - iPad Pro design, internals barely updated besides the annual CPU upgrade. Rest is software. Only MAX got camera upgrade
iPad Air - basically a lower spec 2018 11" iPad Pro with worse screen, A14 chip instead of A12X

It's great they were able to do this all during a pandemic. Honestly! Kudos!

"Apple innovated in 2020 more than any other year" is insultingly stupid of a lie. This isn't 2007 when the iPhone came out for f sake

 

[sdz]

There's barely anything new on the inside too? Tim Cook is as always full of marketing BS when he gives these talks. Sadly.

Apple Watch - no change besides that 'oxygen' sensor

Very good, that you put it that way --- "oxgen"

AT least Apple could add Sleep Apnoe detection or something along the lines on this device... In the current form it is utterly useless.

 

[Feyl]

Is this guy for real or did he lose it? Tim should take a reality check and stop using such strong words. I mean, creating a whole new categories like iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad is a less significant breakthrough than a phone with sharp edges and 5G?

 

[Googlyhead]

I’m completely aware that this is just a PR soundbite/stunt to say “we’re still doing stuff”.
But aside from the M1 (and arguably, some Apple headphones to replace Beats models); it’s hard to see any 2020 innovation.
I would argue that aside from the constant output of the chip design division (and incremental product updates); innovation at Apple has been on a decline for the past decade.

 

[The Cappy]

Most Mac Users don't care about performance. PowerPC was slow as hell and people did not care.

That's not true. They definitely cared. They just cared more about which OS they used.

 

[tridley68]

I beg to differ on that Timmy I phone 12 back to the older square sides it seems lately the only thing we get is a faster processor and you tweak the camera

 

[Seanm87]

M1 macs I’d agree with other than that not much else was innovating.

IPad pros were tiny updates
IPhone 12 was 5G I wouldn’t really call that innovative
airpods max were noise cancelling headphones. Been done before plenty of times.
Homepod mini was a smaller HomePod
Apple watch 6 ok blood oxygen monitoring was pretty innovative

I would say other years were actually better