Apple CEO Tim Cook opened up All Things Digital’s tenth annual conference on Tuesday evening and while no one expected any product announcements during his time on stage with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, all eyes were on Cook during one of his first public appearances as CEO. Highlights from the interview:
- Cook believes the system that governs standards-essential patents is broken, and he says that Apple’s ongoing patent disputes with rival vendors like Samsung and HTC are a “pain in the ass.” We’re sure Samsung, HTC and other vendors targeted by Apple would agree.
- While the company is considering killing off its social network flop “Ping,” integration with social services like Facebook will play a more important role in iOS moving forward.
- Tim Cook would like to see his company launch products that are made in America.
- Where Apple’s voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri is concerned, Cook made it clear that big things are coming in the next few months. “There’s more that it can do,” Cook said. “We have a lot of people working on this. You’ll be really pleased with the things you’ll see over the coming months. The breadth that you’re talking about… we’ve got some cool ideas about what Siri can do. We have a lot going on on this.”
- Cook wouldn’t comment specifically on the upcoming “iTV” Apple is widely rumored to be readying for launch, but he did say Apple will focus more on the television market moving forward. “This is an area of intense interest for us,” Cook said while speaking about
Apple TV , noting that Apple has sold more than 2.7 million Apple TVs so far in 2012. “We’re going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.” Some reports suggest Apple’s HDTV will launch in the fourth quarter this year. - While he obviously didn’t get into specifics, the CEO mentioned that we can expect exciting new product launches from Apple in the near future. Apple’s annual WWDC convention kicks off next month and the rumor mill suggests we’ll see new MacBooks and iMacs unveiled with Retina Displays.
All Things Digital has posted a series of video clips highlighting various segments from the Cook interview that can be viewed on its site.
