Tim Cook Reflects on Steve Jobs, Apple Watch Saving Lives, and Politics on The David Rubenstein Show

[ctg7w6]

You obviously misunderstood the context of what he said. "I'm not political" in this context means he has no interest in being a politician — running, and the media circus that goes with it. You can see that as a sentence or so later he says "You know, it's something that you'd love to be President, but not ever run." You are confusing the job of being political as a politician with being political as having specific viewpoints on current events while being quoted or enacting policies while running the company he is CEO of. Those are two different things completely. I debate with friends and colleagues about topics I feel strongly connected to, but that would be a different context than actually entering and running in the political forum.

Ok, rush limbaugh is not political then.

 

[pika2000]

In their marketing too. I can’t recall the last time I saw a white man in a commercial or product shot. It’s his company—he can do whatever. But when you go out of your way to NOT feature a particular sex or skin color you are intentionally hostile to that classification. It reeks of politics and to say otherwise is dishonest.

Wait what? If you don't use a white man in your ads, you are hostile to white men? What kind of logic is that?

And he's not white?

 

[Websnapx2]

What does “friendly to the environment” mean, and why do you think sealed products aren’t? It doesn’t matter how the product is built. What matters in my opinion is what happens to the materials at end of life. Does it go to a landfill, or can the materials be recovered and reused. By that measure, which is how Apple judges itself, Apple is a leader.

https://www.apple.com/environment/

Sealed generally means not repairable. Non-repairable machines have a shorter lifespan. So a device that could have a few components replaced may last a few more years, rather than requiring them to be repaired off warranty at the store, incurring a cost that just reinforces investing in a new device instead. High repair costs on sealed devices, tape and glue to hold components in place and non-standard tools required for opening means people will just buy a new device rather than fix the old one. The process is not friendly to the environment, regardless of what Apple does with the devices afterwards because if the devices we more easily repairable, there would be fewer devices Apple would need to recycle at any given time.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Wait what? If you don't use a white man in your ads, you are hostile to white men? What kind of logic is that?

And he's not white?

Lol. Is there enough room to show you all the non-white male adcopy? Are you really disputing that Apple goes out of its way to avoid using white men in its promos? Really?

 

[Defthand]

So, Tim is really concerned about LGBT and religious minorities being ostracized, and yet he has no problem with opening Apple stores in Saudi Arabia. Ah, I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

Not to defend the insecurities of other cultures, but the inverse is true as well: Saudis invest in Western businesses, including Apple. Apparently, their values don't prevent them from profiting from "infidels".

It's easier to inspire change in a culture by having a presence. Acceptance can happen through patient, passive, co-existence. It takes time. Usually generations.

 

[pika2000]

Lol. Is there enough room to show you all the non-white male adcopy? Are you really disputing that Apple goes out of its way to avoid using white men in its promos? Really?

WTF?
This is what you said.

I can’t recall the last time I saw a white man in a commercial or product shot.

I showed you an ad for the iPhone X proving you are mistaken.
Yet you're still saying as if Apple is out to go against white men? Have you looked at Apple's executives? They're all pretty white to me.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Cook: Many of the problems of the world come down to the lack of equality. It's the fact that it's the kid who is born in one ZIP code doesn't have a good education because he happens to be born in that ZIP code. It's someone who is maybe in the LGBT community who is fired because of that. It's someone who has a different religion than the majority and are therefore ostracized in some way. If one day you could wave a wand and everybody would treat each other with dignity and respect, there are many, many problems that would go away with that.

Unless you are white.
Or Christian.
Or Male.
Or you name is James Damore
Silicon valley and Apple doesn't have a problem firing those people or their associates.

Entire thing is comical coming from a company that fired someone for saying that white men can bring diversity of ideas to the table.

 

[Websnapx2]

You obviously misunderstood the context of what he said. "I'm not political" in this context means he has no interest in being a politician — running, and the media circus that goes with it. You can see that as a sentence or so later he says "You know, it's something that you'd love to be President, but not ever run." You are confusing the job of being political as a politician with being political as having specific viewpoints on current events while being quoted or enacting policies while running the company he is CEO of. Those are two different things completely. I debate with friends and colleagues about topics I feel strongly connected to, but that would be a different context than actually entering and running in the political forum.

Ok, rush limbaugh is not political then.

Again, ignoring context.

Cook was asked if he was going to run for president, he said he was not political — meaning he doesn't want to be a politician. That is not the same as the commonly used slang term "getting political" where someone voices a personal opinion on social and hot-button topics, with no expectation of actually being a politician and enacting his opinions.

 

[pika2000]

Unless you are white.
Or Christian.
Or Male.
Or you name is James Damore
Silicon valley and Apple doesn't have a problem firing those people.

Tim Cook is a white man.
James Damore was a Google employee. I don't see the logic of pointing this yet bashing Apple instead of Google.

 

[miniyou64]

Wow, way to dismiss all the engineers at Apple. I wonder if you have even contributed anything into the world.

Oh personal insults. How unique. Their software is garbage now compared to when Steve was around. I really don’t care what gender the engineers are, but I prefer Apple products without 1000 bugs and software updates every other week that tend to just make it worse. So something isn’t working out right.

 

[Tech198]

lol... "I guess if your in the Apple Park, its also pretty much impossible not to run into others either..

You know, considering its shape, and all."

 

[Glockworkorange]

I’m

WTF?
This is what you said.

I showed you an ad for the iPhone X proving you are mistaken.
Yet you're still saying as if Apple is out to go against white men? Have you looked at Apple's executives? They're all pretty white to me.

I’m talking about advertising, which is the way they signal “diversity.” You showed me one ad with a white dude. Never saw that one.

The point remains Apple goes out of its way to make sure white men don’t show up in many ads or marketing materials.

Showing me one ad with a white guy and telling me about the executive team doesn’t make what I stated any less true.

I know you know this. If you want to argue about whether intentionally excluding white men from their advertising is a good or bad thing, that’s fine. But trying to pretend they don’t intentionally keep white men out of their ad copy is disingenuous.

 

[Applebot1]

Tim seems Comfy. I popped in an Apple Store the other day while traveling with an odd hardware problem. They scrambled and gave me a fix, on a machine well past its warranty, and free of charge. That was really nice. While I waited, I noticed a distinct lack of computers on display. Tables of Phones and iPads, and watches under a glass case, homepods along the front wall, an apple tv sitting there, and what must have been thousands of colorful cases, covers, and watchbands.

At the back fo the store, one table had 6 laptops on it, one table had people sitting waiting for other people in line, and along one wall was an imac, and along the other was a mac pro.

It was a bit jarring to see, but I guess that's the business now.

Apple is becoming a “lifestyle” company. The Mac isn’t their
Priority any more.

 

[Jim Lahey]

As a non-American, I sometimes wish Americans would stop talking about Americans. There is a world outside of America. Why can’t you guys just refer to people as people? I get that you’re proud and patriotic, and that’s fine, but Cook instantly alienated half the world with his comments about “Americans”. I do appreciate that this is probably a strange viewpoint to most Americans. Just an observation. No offence intended.

Good article though, and thanks very much for posting

 

[macguru212]

So, Tim is really concerned about LGBT and religious minorities being ostracized, and yet he has no problem with opening Apple stores in Saudi Arabia. Ah, I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

And even less of a problem with not updating MacMinis or MacPros*.

*sorry, I had to beat that dead horse

 

[Euge]

Let's be clear about something, green-washing is just marketing. That goes for all major tech corps spending tons of money on green tshirts and elaborate presentations concerning their products.

Making computers, shipping them around the world, and operating data centers is not and never will be "eco friendly", no matter that one company or another recycles the metal casing of a device instead of throwing it in the trash.

What is your definition of eco friendly? It sounds like your saying that anything that negatively affects the environment is not eco friendly. To me, being eco friendly is using an alternative that is LESS negatively impactful on the environment.

By my definition, if computer manufacturer A has a lower carbon footprint, uses more sustainable energy sources, has packaging that is more recyclable, uses less toxic substances in their products, and continually tries to improve their environmental impact than computer manufacturer B, then they are more eco friendly than computer manufacturer B.

It sounds like by your definition, both computer manufacturer A and B are not eco friendly, and the only way to be so is to shut down their companies and stop producing anything.

 

[AlbinoPigeon]

In their marketing too. I can’t recall the last time I saw a white man in a commercial or product shot. It’s his company—he can do whatever. But when you go out of your way to NOT feature a particular sex or skin color you are intentionally hostile to that classification. It reeks of politics and to say otherwise is dishonest.

Here's a screen cap of Apple's official Youtube channel, you'll notice there are a lot of white dudes:

Sentiments like this remind me of one of my favourite quotes:

"When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression"

Apple is a global company. And, hate to break it to you, most people in this world ain't white. So occasionally you're going to see some yellows and browns mixed in bud. Suck it up, you'll be OK.

 

[9081094]

Aaarrrgghhh, I’m so out of sync with Tim Cook. I don’t see the innovations he’s talking about. I don’t see or feel he’s treating customers as jewels instead of money cows. I don’t see he’s less interested in investors than customers... if so... why pay extra dividend instead of innovating the hardware.

I don’t see him being interested in the Mac although he’s telling it’s very important to him... maybe I’m blind... I just don’t see it

 

[69650]

Cook: “treating customers like they're jewels”

I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read that quote from Cook. In my experience Apple treats it’s customers with arrogant disdain and contempt.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

The definition of a softball, slow-pitch interview.

I just wonder if Cook's Team mandates on all interviews to review the questions before-hand -- with no ad-hoc, curve balls allowed.

Also I was surprised that Cook failed to mention his old and tired signature acclaim that "the product pipeline is not only full, but full of innovation."

 

[MRrainer]

To all the people who say, he should stay out of politics (comment wise): Apple is so large these days, it's an economy of its own. Probably larger than a lot of sovereign states. At that size, you have to have an opinion.
At least, as a consumer-brand. If it was a commodity trader, that would be different.
But things being as they are, the amount of public exposure and public commentary we get from Apple on issues that move the public is about right - IMO. It's not obnoxious, but it's still visible.

 

[imicca]

Notice how Tim mentions geographical, sexual and religious equality problems but no political views. It feels like in progressive and liberal companies of America, like Apple, they don't value freedom of political affiliation or choice to support one candidate over another. My friends works at Apple. He says there is "underground society" of conservatives, classical liberals, centrists, libertarians and even far right who are very afraid to speak out and even express non-progressive opinions. Look up "James Damore" and read up on him. It's shocking how high Apple values your sexual preference, skin colour and religion and how low your freedom to "THINK DIFFERENT".

 

[MisterK]

So, Tim is really concerned about LGBT and religious minorities being ostracized, and yet he has no problem with opening Apple stores in Saudi Arabia. Ah, I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

He'll sell products to whoever wants to buy them, regardless of whether they agree with him ideologically or not. That's not hypocrisy because that's exactly what he (and others) would have bakers do when they're refusing to bake a cake for gay people.
[doublepost=1528917788][/doublepost]

I’m


I’m talking about advertising, which is the way they signal “diversity.” You showed me one ad with a white dude. Never saw that one.

The point remains Apple goes out of its way to make sure white men don’t show up in many ads or marketing materials.

Showing me one ad with a white guy and telling me about the executive team doesn’t make what I stated any less true.

I know you know this. If you want to argue about whether intentionally excluding white men from their advertising is a good or bad thing, that’s fine. But trying to pretend they don’t intentionally keep white men out of their ad copy is disingenuous.

First, you don't know what ad copy means. Secondly, you can easily see this isn't true. Go on Apple's YouTube page and you'll see lots of white men in their ads. May I suggest "iPhone - Environment" or "iPhone - Apple Support" or "iPhone - Safe"... and these are just the iPhone ones they released 3 months ago. Maybe you're used to seeing 95% of ads featuring white men and you're now seeing Apple with 55%, because Apple's doing a better job than most of including other races and women.

 

[Websnapx2]

Notice how Tim mentions geographical, sexual and religious equality problems but no political views. It feels like in progressive and liberal companies of America, like Apple, they don't value freedom of political affiliation or choice to support one candidate over another. My friends works at Apple. He says there is "underground society" of conservatives, classical liberals, centrists, libertarians and even far right who are very afraid to speak out and even express non-progressive opinions. Look up "James Damore" and read up on him. It's shocking how high Apple values your sexual preference, skin colour and religion and how low your freedom to "THINK DIFFERENT".

James Damore was not only international news (so people are familiar with it) he was not an Apple employee, he worked (and was fired) from Google. I actually do have friends that still work for Apple that I met during my time there and there are quite a few conservatives there — most avoid certain topics because they don't want to have a debate, they want to work. Damore wrote a paper that, among other things, outlined how prejudice would create a better work environment by assigning roles based on gendered traits rather than individual accomplishments. I personally don't agree with the paper for the most part, but he is entitled to his opinion just as people are entitled to disagree with it. None of this has anything to do with Apple.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Tim Cook is a white man.
James Damore was a Google employee. I don't see the logic of pointing this yet bashing Apple instead of Google.

And Apple fired someone for saying the following....

And I’ve often told people a story– there can be 12 white blue-eyed blonde men in a room and they are going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation.