AMITIAE - Saturday 8 December 2012


Tim Cook Interview with Brian Williams on Rock Center (with links)


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By Graham K. Rogers


Tim Cook


Apple CEO Tim Cook was interviewed by Brian Williams on NBC Rock Center this week. The video of the interview that was aired on 7 December is now available online in two parts. It can be viewed in Thailand. It does not reveal too much about Cook himself - a private man - but there are some useful hints for the future if we read between the lines. The Rock Center page with an article, links to the video page (link beneath the text).

There are some criticisms, especially over Siri. And Maps. When asked, Cook says, "It didn't meet our customers' expectations, and our expectations are even higher than our customers'. . . So we screwed up."

When asked about saying goodbye to some executives (Forestall), there was no direct answer but he repeated, "We screwed up," adding "We are putting the weight of the company behind correcting it."

Williams' overdubbed commentary was all a bit shallow: not discovering anything really new, but propagating some of the mythology, in a voice just a shade below hysteria. Cook's own comments sometimes sidestepped questions asked, but even so there was some interesting ideas. And on the need to stay focussed: "We can only do great things a few times on a few products."


The first part is just over 11 minutes, and the video then reloads into Part 2 (8 mins) where Cook discusses the Made in America question, and (as has been widely reported) tells Williams about the $100 million investment on bringing Mac manufacturing back to the US (Foxconn).

He also discusses his recruitment by Steve Jobs, bringing him from COMPAQ to Cupertino; there is also some discussion of Cook's personal life, with Williams not delving too deeply but selecting his words carefully.

And television? "An area of intense interest. I can't say more than that. . . ." Williams (unsurprisingly) could not get more than that about the future from Apple.


Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.


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