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Tim Cook Discusses Steve Jobs, Apple's Rivals, and Calls Apple Watch 'The First Modern Smartwatch'

samcraig said:
Excuse me? What companies flocked to the smartphone market that weren't already there before Apple?

I can't wait for this answer.
Click to expand...

How many smartphones had HTC sold before the iPhone? Samsung? LG? Motorola? Huawei? Lenovo?

I'm actually curious - Nokia was THE top dog (BB also). But I don't think it's a stretch to say that a very massive portion of mobile devices sold pre-iPhone were what we could consider "dumb phones" now.

I'm in no way saying the iPhone was first. And I'm not saying other companies didn't have some R&D going on. But the number of smartphones sold pre-iPhone and post-iPhone seem to tell a pretty interesting story.

Maybe it happens anyway....that'll probably be the argument. I suppose we're speculating. But the iPhone had a pretty profound impact on the industry as a whole.
 
Even Longer said:
Dear Tim,

you seem to "forget", that MS has entered the hardware business (with some struggle) and has a great competitor product called Surface Pro 3, which is not less integrated than any MacBook out there (especially running Yosemite, - designed by Apple in California, programmed in China).

So, please stop coming with the same old story about the evil OEM's and disintegrated Windows, build by morons for morons. It is strictly not true.
.
Click to expand...

Doesn't change the fact that Microsoft's lack of focus on their customers' needs historically lead them to make all the wrong choices from the user's point of view. It's great they <finally> got rid of Ballmer and are exploring the integrated approach but I think it's too little and too late. Also their strategy of trying to shoehorn the same user interface across different devices is dumb.

But none of this matters because the Windows PC world is the past, not the future. In today's mobile landscape his comments apply perfectly to Google and Android.
 
bbeagle said:
Your memory seems to be failing you.

There was a HUGE backlash against the iPad after it was announced. Everyone thought it was a failure, and just a bigger iPhone. Hardly anyone liked it. Even Steve Jobs says he went into a little depression because of how it was received at the iPad event - it was his baby that he worked on for 5+ years, and nobody 'got it'. Everyone was quiet at the iPad event because they weren't impressed - not because of any 'astonishment'.
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Exactly. Other than the hardcore tech geeks and Apple fans, people heavily panned the iPad. Myself included.

Someone should bookmark the comments in this topic for 2-3 years from now when the Apple Watch is an obvious success. If I recall there are similar naysayers in the iPhone, iPad, iPod unveiling articles here on Macrumors.
 
jrswizzle said:
How many smartphones had HTC sold before the iPhone? Samsung? LG? Motorola? Huawei? Lenovo?

I'm actually curious - Nokia was THE top dog (BB also). But I don't think it's a stretch to say that a very massive portion of mobile devices sold pre-iPhone were what we could consider "dumb phones" now.

I'm in no way saying the iPhone was first. And I'm not saying other companies didn't have some R&D going on. But the number of smartphones sold pre-iPhone and post-iPhone seem to tell a pretty interesting story.

Maybe it happens anyway....that'll probably be the argument. I suppose we're speculating. But the iPhone had a pretty profound impact on the industry as a whole.
Click to expand...


HTC sold in 2007 (time of iPhone launch) over 9 million.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/208911/htc-smartphone-sales-since-2007/

Nokia - 10M
http://www.statista.com/statistics/263381/nokia-smartphone-shipments-worldwide-since-q1-2007/

I recommend following up and doing the rest of the research yourself.
 
jrswizzle said:
How many smartphones had HTC sold before the iPhone? Samsung? LG? Motorola? Huawei? Lenovo?

I'm actually curious - Nokia was THE top dog (BB also). But I don't think it's a stretch to say that a very massive portion of mobile devices sold pre-iPhone were what we could consider "dumb phones" now.

I'm in no way saying the iPhone was first. And I'm not saying other companies didn't have some R&D going on. But the number of smartphones sold pre-iPhone and post-iPhone seem to tell a pretty interesting story.

Maybe it happens anyway....that'll probably be the argument. I suppose we're speculating. But the iPhone had a pretty profound impact on the industry as a whole.
Click to expand...

You switched from how many flocked to the market vs how many were sold.

So you lost me. My point was that Apple's entrance didn't suddenly attract manufacturers to the idea of a smartphone. Was inspiration (or whatever you want to call it) taken after the release is another matter. But Motorala, Nokia, BB, and others were there. They didn't "flock" to the category.

Sales is sales. Just because some of the other Manufacturers didn't have as high selling devices didn't mean they came to the market because of Apple. More likely they STAYED because of Apple.
 
samcraig said:
You switched from how many flocked to the market vs how many were sold.

So you lost me. My point was that Apple's entrance didn't suddenly attract manufacturers to the idea of a smartphone. Was inspiration (or whatever you want to call it) taken after the release is another matter. But Motorala, Nokia, BB, and others were there. They didn't "flock" to the category.

Sales is sales. Just because some of the other Manufacturers didn't have as high selling devices didn't mean they came to the market because of Apple. More likely they STAYED because of Apple.
Click to expand...

Ok - poor choice of words on my part then. "Flocked" was not the correct term. My use of the sales numbers was only to indicate a company's presence/commitment to a certain industry.

I didn't necessarily mean "flocked" as in went somewhere they had never been. More, drove far more resources to something they hadn't driven a lot of resources to before.

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Smith288 said:
I'd be for twice as thick, triple the battery. I don't know ANYONE clamoring for thinner thinner thinner.
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If it means ultra-portable, I am. I travel, carry these things with me. Work + school means books and laptops and too much crap. Every pound counts.
 
LordVic said:
It's called the "reality distortion field". Tim Cook and the Apple Faithful are known for revisionist history.

Apple is a great company at taking existing trends, making them pretty and beautifull, and being able to sell them to the masses instead of just "geeks".

but they're very rarely first. And I find it interesting how he claims that Apple "invented" the "modern day smartphone" instead of just "smartphone".

He's a very, VERY smart speaker. He knows that by saying this, people who listen to his everyword will eventually drop "Modern day", but not the "smartphone" in their own discussions about devices, which automatically becomes "Apple invented the smartphone". This is the reality distortion field at work. in Prime form.

I really wish Him and Ive and the rest of the Apple top brass would speak in public less.
Click to expand...

wow.
 
Stella said:
What do you mean, you cannot in send real time? You can certainly see real time HR on some Mio and Basis devices.

Sure - you can't graph heart beat on these devices, like you could on the Apple Watch, but given the screen size would you get much of out it? Review data later on a computer / iPad.

Really, Apple are not the first to integrate HR monitor on to a "watch", as you claimed.
Click to expand...

I didn't claim that Apple was the first to integrate a HR monitor on a watch. I said they were the first to allow you to send a real time heartbeat to someone.

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smith288 said:
drawing on a watch to another person who has an apple watch will likely be the least used feature of this device. I can't believe they pimped that so hard during the spring forward.
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:D
 
I've really come to appreciate Tim Cook and his leadership as Apple's CEO. He gets it on so many different levels and is doing a fine job leading Apple today. We should have known all along that Steve would pick the right successor. :)

Bryan
 
LordVic said:
It's called the "reality distortion field". Tim Cook and the Apple Faithful are known for revisionist history.

Apple is a great company at taking existing trends, making them pretty and beautifull, and being able to sell them to the masses instead of just "geeks".

but they're very rarely first. And I find it interesting how he claims that Apple "invented" the "modern day smartphone" instead of just "smartphone".

He's a very, VERY smart speaker. He knows that by saying this, people who listen to his everyword will eventually drop "Modern day", but not the "smartphone" in their own discussions about devices, which automatically becomes "Apple invented the smartphone". This is the reality distortion field at work. in Prime form.

I really wish Him and Ive and the rest of the Apple top brass would speak in public less.
Click to expand...

He literally said in the quote "we were not first".....

Perhaps there is a distortion field, but it goes the other way with people who seem to hate them so much they twist everything said the other way.

Generally, it's better to just take the words for what they are - the ideals of the CEO of most valuable company in the world. You don't get there without conviction. And if you're a smart person, you know whats crap and whats not and ultimately you don't care.

I don't fault Tim Cook at all for thinking Apple is the greatest thing to ever happen to the world. HE SHOULD. He's the gosh darn CEO. I'd be concerned if he was saying "Well we pretty much just take what others do and slap pretty paint on it. Nothing special." I don't care how true or false that is!

Consumers can make their own decisions. We've made ourselves such a helpless, pathetic group. We need Consumer advocate bureaus and people to protect us when we ultimately hold the biggest trump card of all.

If you don't like it (the company, product, what the CEO feels or hell even what the CIO does with his/her free time), don't buy it.

----------
Smith288 said:
Of course you are. They don't offer anything else. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The current 13" Macbook, Macbook Pro, countless other brands and OSes....

But there isn't any choice....right?

Here's a shocker - maybe Apple does a pretty good job at making us forget we want extra ports :eek:. I'm willing to take the risk because I already don't plug stuff in. I've been weaned off the need to be connected by wires to things.

But if I buy it and it doesn't work, I can take it back. And get a MBP or MBA with more ports/battery. Or I could even go with a Windows machine.
 
Apple has made the first good version of many things, as Tim Cook said, but I really can't see them bringing out anything special with the Apple Watch. From what we know right now, it's not much different from the other smart watches.
 
MasterRyu2011 said:
I agree with him on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

But the Watch--it's just like any other smartwatches out today from LG, Samsung, Lenovorolla, Sony. They were late this time but did not provide any significant differentiating feature either.
Click to expand...

One difference is the level of self-expression the Watch allows compared to the others. There's also the quality of the materials and manufacturing process. Finally, there's the integration of the software, hardware and ecosystem.

The Watch isn't out yet, so we can't evaluate these very well right now. Perhaps the Apple Watch ultimately offers nothing more than other smart watches, but I don't think you can possibly conclude that right now.
 
jrswizzle said:
No thanks - no need to sign up a for a "premium account" just to view some graphs.
Click to expand...

didnt know those weren't showing up. I don't have a premium account and they worked fine for me. so i don't know.

But there is plenty o evidence, that prior to the iphone there were mlilions of other devices

we all (myself included) forget that smartphones existed prior to Android and iOS,d espite them being the 2 current big players. Palm, Microsoft and Blackberry were the 3 players at the time who had a wide range of products out.


And yes, Perhaps I am reading too much between the lines for what he's saying. I do that... I'm an analyst... it's my job!
 
jrswizzle said:
He literally said in the quote "we were not first".....

Perhaps there is a distortion field, but it goes the other way with people who seem to hate them so much they twist everything said the other way.

Generally, it's better to just take the words for what they are - the ideals of the CEO of most valuable company in the world. You don't get there without conviction. And if you're a smart person, you know whats crap and whats not and ultimately you don't care.

I don't fault Tim Cook at all for thinking Apple is the greatest thing to ever happen to the world. HE SHOULD. He's the gosh darn CEO. I'd be concerned if he was saying "Well we pretty much just take what others do and slap pretty paint on it. Nothing special." I don't care how true or false that is!

Consumers can make their own decisions. We've made ourselves such a helpless, pathetic group. We need Consumer advocate bureaus and people to protect us when we ultimately hold the biggest trump card of all.

If you don't like it (the company, product, what the CEO feels or hell even what the CIO does with his/her free time), don't buy it.

----------



The current 13" Macbook, Macbook Pro, countless other brands and OSes....

But there isn't any choice....right?

Here's a shocker - maybe Apple does a pretty good job at making us forget we want extra ports :eek:. I'm willing to take the risk because I already don't plug stuff in. I've been weaned off the need to be connected by wires to things.

But if I buy it and it doesn't work, I can take it back. And get a MBP or MBA with more ports/battery. Or I could even go with a Windows machine.
Click to expand...

I can see where he's going with the Macbook. No more pro after this current iteration. They will eventually phase it out down to one product. This one port, thin as paper, under powered Macbook. I use my Macbook Pro to power development work so spare me the Air and this new Macbook. The pro would work for now but they are even lessening the offerings for that since I preferred the 17".
 
Smith288 said:
I can see where he's going with the Macbook. No more pro after this current iteration. They will eventually phase it out down to one product. This one port, thin as paper, under powered Macbook. I use my Macbook Pro to power development work so spare me the Air and this new Macbook. The pro would work for now but they are even lessening the offerings for that since I preferred the 17".
Click to expand...

I see the new MacBook as the successor to the Air,not the pro. Apple would be suicidal in the PC raelm if they think the new MacBook is comparable to the Pro in any way.

the Air on the other hand now seems like the odd duck out. its only marginally larger and heavier than the MacBook. Liklihood I think we'll see the MBA phased out when they can bring the MacBook price down.
 
LordVic said:
his exact words:


and if you read the entirety of this thread, you will already see individuals who have dropped the "modern" and already saying "first smartphone".

he's using cleverly worded statements and rhetoric in a very smart and subtle way. Enough so that you don't see it.
Click to expand...
So, Tim Cook told the truth, but unless he personally contacts everyone who doesn't quote him verbatim, he's actually lying.

Apple is like the Edison of smartphones.
It's like the Henry Ford of smartphones.
It's like the Alexander Graham Bell of smartphones.
It's like the Christopher Columbus of smartphones.
 
samcraig said:
That's not a logical conclusion based on his comment. At no time did he state he wasn't for technological advances.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I am all for technological advances. Personally I would have made the new MacBook the same way they did, but would have added a new miniaturized magsafe power connector and 2 USB-C connectors.

I know some will argue that just one USB-C connector for everything is a better solution because Apple says so, but personally I think my solution would provide a lot more flexibility and make a better laptop out of it.

Some say that everything should be wireless, magsafe is dated technology, no one needs more then one port, etc. but honestly you can give a computer some connectivity while still being thin and very modern.
 
LordVic said:
I see the new MacBook as the successor to the Air,not the pro. Apple would be suicidal in the PC raelm if they think the new MacBook is comparable to the Pro in any way.

the Air on the other hand now seems like the odd duck out. its only marginally larger and heavier than the MacBook. Liklihood I think we'll see the MBA phased out when they can bring the MacBook price down.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you're right. But...

"First they came for the 17" and I didn't say anything, because I already had one. Then they came for the matte screens... but I didnt say anything because I already got one (this time, it as only 15")...."
 
Smith288 said:
Perhaps you're right. But...



"First they came for the 17" and I didn't say anything, because I already had one. Then they came for the matte screens... but I didnt say anything because I already got one (this time, it as only 15")...."
Click to expand...


I don't think they'll move to one product. I actually don't think it'll completely replace the Air either.
 
I don't mean to be rude, but when Tim criticizes Microsoft for legacy stuff and saying Apple has never been afraid of leaving things behind and moving on.

That's really only because Apple make tech toys, and in the real business world are unimportant.

I know saying that will upset people, but it's true. The PC's get the real work done in the world, you can spec any PC up to do anything.
Apple is the pretty pretty flipping between here and there work.

In the REAL WORLD you can't simply walk away from things.
You don't throw all your computing support away for millions of businesses.
A can mechanic does not throw all his old tools away because more modern cars come out.

You can do this if you are playing, but real life means you do carry on support for ages and ages.
Heck if a customer send me important data on a floppy disc. Not that I'd expect that to happen now, but if it did happen, I'd want to be in a position to read it.

Real world, real things need to get done.
 
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