Apple CEO Tim Cook updated analysts and investors on Apple's potential for the future, the secrets of its success and dangled the possibility of future dividends, a hot topic on Wall Street. Cook was addressing the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference in San Francisco when he made his remarks, which covered a wide range of topics.
Apple CEO Tim Cook may have hinted at the prospect of an Apple TV set during today's now-concluded talk in front of the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. The executive was asked about the current Apple TV set-top and possibilities such as a full-sized TV. "We don't want to send a message to you or shareholders that the market for it [the Apple TV set-top] is the size of our other businesses...we don't want to send a message that the length of that leg on the stool is the same as the others," he commented.
Apple "takes working conditions very seriously," according to CEO Tim Cook. The executive is currently speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, and began his presentation by defending the company's attitude toward suppliers. Critics and activists have brought the company to task for using suppliers that rely on low high wages, extreme hours, questionable safety, and sometimes underage labor.
Apple is likely uninterested in building a MacBook Air with an ARM-based processor, says Citigroup's Richard Gardner. The analyst met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer at the company's Cupertino campus on Thursday, when among other things Cook repeated a view that iOS expansion will eventually result in tablets outselling conventional PCs. "We have wondered whether Apple might offer an ARM-based version of the MacBook Air at some point; we walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies -- or will soon satisfy -- the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product," writes Gardner in a new memo.
Another topic discussed at Apple's "town hall" meeting last week was the company's charitable contributions, according to sources for The Verge. CEO Tim Cook reportedly stated that Apple had donated $50 million to Stanford's hospitals, split evenly between a new main building and a new children's hospital. The executive also bragged about Apple's position as the largest contributor to (PRODUCT)RED; some proceeds from a small group of Apple products go to the charity, which helps fight AIDS in Africa.
Apple's new retail head, John Browett, was "the best by far" in terms of possible candidates, says company CEO Tim Cook. One blogger, Tony Hart, says he received a personal response from Cook after sending an email with his own thoughts on the hiring. "I talked to many people and John was the best by far," Cook's message reads. "I think you will be as pleased as I am. His role isn't to bring Dixons to Apple, [it's] to bring Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction."
Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent out a long letter to workers in an attempt to respond to complaints about poor conditions at supplier factories, according to 9to5Mac. "As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values," the letter begins. "Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.
The tease of an Apple town hall meeting has been followed up with apparent confirmation that it was internally focused. CEO Tim Cook was said by 9to5 to have instituted a plan where staff get $500 discounts on Macs and a $250 drop on the price of an iPad. Only the Mac mini would be excluded from the deal, which may well see the systems sold virtually at cost.
An escaped internal e-mail from Apple CEO Tim Cook intercepted at 9to5 has made allusions to possible insights for 2012 plans to staff. Following the iBooks textbook launch and record quarterly results, Cook was holding a company event at the company's Town Hall theater at 10AM Wednesday. Cook and staff would review what Apple had done, but they would also discuss "some exciting new things going on at Apple," he said.
Apple during its fall quarter results revealed IDC data that tablets outsold PCs in the fall. While he didn't provide concrete details, he suggested that the iPad, Android, and other tablet platforms had pushed past the combined Mac and Windows PC markets. IDC's own PC figures showed 18.6 million US computers, making it probable that Apple's 15.4 million plus the smaller share of the rest of the market was enough to push past.
Apple CEO Tim Cook may be about to vastly increase his personal wealth, notes an executive compensation tracking firm, Equilar. Parts of two separate restricted stock unit grants belonging to Cook are vesting in the current quarter. Based on Apple's closing stock price on December 30th, the shares are estimated to be worth about $96.2 million.
New Apple CEO Tim Cook is likely friendlier to corporate customers than his predecessor, Steve Jobs, suggest two former Apple workers quoted by the New York Times. Identified as having operated in business sales, the sources claim that while he was still just COO, Cook met with corporate customers more often and seemed to appreciated their needs, although he stuck with Jobs' position that Apple should focus on consumers rather than businesses. "Tim was always very good with customers," one of the sources says.
Recently appointed Apple CEO Tim Cook is making some, though not fundamental, changes in the approach to management over the late Steve Jobs, insiders disclosed Tuesday. While he's already known to more actively contact staff, the Wall Street Journal sources also understood that he was overseeing tasks common to CEOs but which Jobs had seldom involved himself with, such as corporate reporting and promotions. Cook is described as more "accessible" and, during Jobs' second tenure, was often an advisor on how to approach the co-founder on a given subject.
Apple late Sunday posted a live stream for its Celebrating Steve event online. Previously a company-only event that led it to close stores on October 19, the 80-minute presentation was headed up by CEO Tim Cook on Apple's campus. It also includes guest presentations from Al Gore, Jonathan Ive, and others closely attached to the company.
Samsung COO Lee Jae-yong's visit to Steve Jobs' memorial led to the rumored talks with Apple, the Korean executive said Wednesday. Along with a deal through at least 2012, he and Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed deals for 2013 and 2014 for "even better parts," he told the Korea Herald. The two-hour talk touched on their earlier history as well as improving relations between the two in the future.
Apple has posted a photograph from today's remembrance of the company's co-founder, Steve Jobs, showing CEO Tim Cook addressing a large assembly of Apple employees at the company's main Cupertino campus. The title of the photograph refers to the gathering as a "celebration of Steve Jobs' life" and features large banners of the iconic chairman and former CEO of the company at various stages of his career.
Former Apple CEO and chairman Steve Jobs was doing work for the company on the day before his death, an interview with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son reveals. "I visited Apple [headquarters] for the announcement of the iPhone 4S," says Son. "When I was having a meeting with [Apple CEO] Tim Cook, he said, 'Oh Masa, sorry I have to quit our meeting.' I said, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'My boss is calling me.' That was the day of the announcement of the iPhone 4S. He said that Steve is calling me because he wants to talk about their next product. And the next day, he died."
(Updated to downplay Baez's role) A partial list of the people present at Sunday's private memorial for Steve Jobs has been published, says Fortune. Among the people there were Apple executives Tim Cook (CEO) and Scott Forstall (senior VP for iOS), and board members Bill Campbell and Al Gore. Former US President Bill Clinton was also in attendance; one of the people most closely connected to Jobs, though, may have been singer Joan Baez, who once dated him during the late 1970s and early '80s.
The workers in Apple's US corporate division are getting the entire week of Thanksgiving off, an internal memo from CEO Tim Cook states. "Team, I consider it an honor to come to work every day alongside the most innovative and most dedicated people on earth," the email begins. "This is an extraordinary time to be at Apple, and it's all made possible by your incredible efforts.
Apple's senior VP for iOS, Scott Forstall, was indirectly responsible for the leak of an iPhone 4 prototype in 2010, a new Businessweek profile suggests. A former Apple manager claims that Forstall persuaded the company's CEO at the time, Steve Jobs, to allow dozens of engineers to carry prototypes so they could do better testing of network performance and reduce dropped calls. It was one of Forstall's engineers who accidentally left an iPhone 4 in a pub, which eventually resulted in a Gizmodo hands-on piece and a high-profile criminal investigation.
Apple will hold an internal memorial ceremony for Steve Jobs on October 19th, according to a memo from CEO Tim Cook. "Team," the email begins. "Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I've found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius. And I've found comfort in both telling and listening to stories about Steve.
Apple's co-creator, the late Steve Jobs, will be buried Friday, sources mentioned the same day. His ceremony was cast by the WSJ as a "small private gathering" focused on friends and family. The location wasn't being given out as a matter of respect for the Jobs family's privacy.
Early analyst opinion is maintaining a generally favorable view of Apple's prospects in the wake of Steve Jobs' death. "It is the culture of innovation, thinking different, risk taking, and execution that will live on," says Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu. "In our view, the challenge and opportunity for AAPL is to maintain this culture. The good news is that Steve has put a strong team in place to execute with Tim Cook, Jonathan Ive, Eddy Cue, Scott Forstall, Phil Schiller, Peter Oppenheimer, Bob Mansfield, to name a few."
Apple CEO Tim Cook in the aftermath of the death of Steve Jobs issued a company-wide letter in eulogy. The executive had nothing but praise for Jobs, who brought him into the company roughly 13 years ago. A special memorial would take place in the near future and would take condolences from Apple staff.
Apple has posted a web stream for the iPhone-centric press event held earlier today. In all the presentation is over 96 minutes long, and covers topics such as iCloud, iOS 5, the iPhone 4S and minor iPod updates. The stream is the public's first chance at seeing complete video of the event, since Apple did not air a live stream, and has yet to publish it through iTunes.
The consensus view is that Apple chairman Steve Jobs will make some sort of appearance at tomorrow's iPhone event, according to Reuters. The wire agency appears to be basing its judgment on discussions with analysts and investors, despite reports to the contrary. Reuters in fact suggests that a potential absence would "not be a major disappointment," even though Jobs is an Apple icon and has led almost all of the company's major keynotes.
Apple's October 4 iPhone 5 event will take place on Apple's own campus, insiders tipped off on Sunday. Breaking with Apple's 'tradition' of unveiling new iOS devices at larger venues like the Moscone Center or the Yerba Buena Center, it will host the event at the Town Hall theater on Apple's campus, AllThingsD heard. No explanation was given as to why, although it's not likely to have been a long-term, intentional choice.
Apple has narrowed down its iPhone 5 introduction event to October 4, insiders detailed Wednesday. The event is understood by AllThingsD to presage the release of the new device within "a few weeks" of the appearance, most likely in the first half of October. Contacts have also had Tim Cook presiding over the event, marking the first event Cook will oversee since Steve Jobs resigned as CEO.
Apple is working on a way to merge multiple Apple IDs into a single login, MacRumors is reporting based on a claim from an Apple representative from CEO Tim Cook's office. Users who either accidentally or deliberately have more than one Apple ID have found the issue to be the cause of unexpected hassle, and the coming iOS 5 and iCloud updates will exacerbate the issue. Until now, Apple has held that they cannot consolidate Apple IDs for customers.
Apple is launching an "matching gift" program for charitable donations, CEO Tim Cook has announced through an internal memo. Beginning on September 15th, Apple workers who donate to a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity can have their funds matched dollar-for-dollar. The limit is $10,000 annually however, and Apple is also initially restricting the offer to full-time US Apple workers, expanding to other regions "over time," according to Cook. The decision excludes much of Apple's retail staff, which is frequently hired on a part-time basis.
Like his predecessor, Steve Jobs, new Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking the time to respond to customer emails, reports say. Much of the email Cook has received so far is said to be congratulations for his new job, to which he is normally responding with simple thanks. In some cases though he has gone into more detail, for example thanking an Iraq veteran for his military service, and repeating Auburn University's "War Eagle" battle cry in response to someone who used it first.
Apple's required filing of form 8-K with the SEC, a formal notice to the regulatory body as well as shareholders of major changes within the company, reveals that the board of directors has offered new CEO Tim Cook a strong incentive to stay for the long haul -- an offer of one million shares of "restricted" stock that, if valued by today's stock price, would be worth $383 million, AppleInsider reports. Cook will receive half of the units on his fifth anniversary as CEO, and the other half on his tenth.
Sources with Apple's major suppliers -- including Quanta and Foxconn -- are not worried that Steve Jobs' resignation will affect orders, according to Digitimes. The sources remark that Apple's new CEO, former COO Tim Cook, was already responsible for handling the company's manufacturing dealings. The only real worry is the loss of brand recognition, and the potential impact on innovation unless Apple can find someone like its former icon, the sources say.
Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook, has reportedly issued an email memo to the rest of the company on his taking over for Steve Jobs. "Team," the memo begins, "I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I've ever made and it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve's optimism for Apple's bright future."
Following Steve Jobs' resignation from Apple as CEO, new sources have claimed that his exit will still see him influence Apple strategy for some time. Those "familiar with the situation" told the WSJ that Jobs was still active and was "closely involved" in corporate strategy. They didn't elaborate to what extent, but it will most likely focus on broader direction than the minute details Jobs was known for as CEO.
RBC Capital technology analyst Mike Abramsky had a meeting yesterday with Apple's acting CEO and COO Tim Cook along with CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and while not directly quoting either executive, commented on his own "takeaways" from the meeting, confirming among other things that Apple is indeed planning a low-cost iPhone -- if it can be a "innovative, category-killer experience," reports Tiernan Ray at Barron's.
Tablets like the iPad are growing rapidly enough that they could be more popular than PCs, Apple COO Tim Cook told Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope after a recent interview. Recounting a meeting that also included CFO Peter Oppenheimer and retail Senior VP Ron Johnson, Shope was told that there was "no reason why the tablet market shouldn't eclipse the PC market over the next several years." The prediction helped lead analyst to estimate Apple would ship 8.1 million iPads in the spring, or nearly three quarters more than the 3.3 million Apple shipped in the tablet's inaugural season.
At least some Best Buy stores are holding back stock of the iPad 2, according to reports. One source claims that the retail chain has had all stock pulled except for demonstration units. Another initially explained that Apple was upset with a Best Buy policy, in which customers would be told there were no iPad 2s in stock when in reality a store had just reached a daily quota. Apple COO Tim Cook was said to be directly involved in resolving the situation, information supposedly backed by an Apple representative at a Best Buy outlet.
Apple has "clever things" planned in order to address the prepaid market for iPhones, says COO Tim Cook. The executive joined CFO Peter Oppenheimer and VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue in speaking with Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Bernstein Research. While the iPhone is in high demand, a new model can cost at least $600 off-contract. Apple doesn't want its products to be "just for the rich," according to Cook, and is "not ceding any market." He notes that the company has spent "huge energy" in China, said to be a "clasic prepaid market."
Apple shareholders during the company's annual shareholder meeting voted down a measure that would have required a public CEO succession plan. The preliminary decision would let Apple keep Steve Jobs' eventual replacement a secret. Institutional Shareholder Services, a collective group, had called for the move to help them judge whether the Board of Directors was capable of handling a succession when ready.
Financial publication Fast Company has published a new ranking of possible replacements for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The magazine notes that even if Jobs does return from his current medical leave, the company will eventually have to find a replacement. The top potential candidate is argued to be Apple's senior VP of iPhone software, Scott Forstall. He is "young, possesses the right kind of technical knowledge and dynamism, and has become an increasingly important figure in key Apple product decisions," according to the magazine.
Apple's iOS software has reportedly reached 32 million devices in the recent quarter, according to comments from COO Tim Cook. The number expands past 160 million devices when considering every iPad, iPhone and iPod touch manufactured to date. The executive also criticized the competition by highlighting the consistency of iOS across Apple's range of devices.
The sudden medical leave announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs this morning is already having an effect on stock trading, according to Reuters. The agency reports that Apple shares fell 7.5 percent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by 2:38PM GMT; futures on the S&P 500 SPc1 and the NASDAQ NDc have slipped 0.3 and 0.9 percent, respectively. The impact of the announcement has been muted by Apple's decision to make it on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when US markets are closed.
Apple COO Tim Cook pulled in $59.1 million in total compensation during 2010, including bonuses and stock options, official SEC filings show. While already reasonably wealthy thanks to an $800,000 salary, he was further granted a "special award" in March, signifying "outstanding performance" in managing Apple while CEO Steve Jobs was away coping with a liver transplant. Cook received 75,000 restricted Apple shares, plus a $5 million discretionary bonus.
Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has denied a rumor he is considering the CEO position at HP, according to Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall. The earlier claim led to a drop in Apple stock on Tuesday morning, although prices have since rebounded. Marshall explains that he later ran into Cook in Palo Alto asked him about the matter. "Tim Cook will not be going to HP, he loves Apple," says Marshall.
Apple has promoted an executive in what could be some of its earliest steps towards handling CEO Steve Jobs' succession, a report claimed this evening. VP of Operations Jeff Williams is understood to have been promoted to Senior VP, just below chief operating officer Tim Cook, with the intention of taking Cook's role should he replace Jobs as company leader. AppleInsider understands that he would oversee product quality as well as help manage the supply chain, both of which have been considered Cook's strengths and which would hint at a large amount of trust in Williams' abilities.
Following Apple's Q3 financial disclosures, COO Tim Cook played down the impact of antenna issues surrounding the iPhone 4. The executive suggests that, despite the reception problems, "we are selling every device we can make."
Several Apple executives have become even richer after a stock selloff on Thursday, Fortune reports. Over a million restricted Apple shares became fully vested on Wednesday, and the next morning, four executives sold most of them under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. COO Tim Cook is noted to have profited most, having sold 300,000 shares at prices ranging from $226.90 to $230.70; the shares were originally worth $72.01 apiece. Cook's total haul is noted to have been $68.8 million, although $32 million was diverted to taxes.
Apple in a just-published SEC filing has revealed that its chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was paid about $22 million in bonuses for acting as CEO during Steve Jobs' medical leave last year. The payouts included both a $5 million immediate bonus as well as 75,000 units of restricted stock, which at the time issued were worth about $17 million. Both reflect the "outstanding performance" in taking Apple's helm, the filing reads.
Apple COO Tim Cook on Tuesday spoke about a variety of topics, including the iPad and business strategy, during his keynote at Goldman Sachs' technology conference in San Francisco. The executive claims he has been using the iPad for six months and "can't wait" for it to begin shipping.
