Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, revealing a good deal of information about the inner workings of Apple and the direction the company will be headed in the coming years. Below are a few of his notable statements.
OLED sucks
Cook spoke strongly against the use of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) in cell phones, reports CNET, citing the sub-par color saturation in those screens in devices from Motorola and Samsung. “If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what he color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display.” He went on to discuss the superior display quality of the Retina display employed by Apple products.
Smartphone market is “a wide-open field”
When talking about the smartphone market, Cook said that, in a market that soared to 700 million units last year, it’s still “a wide-open field,” and that he sees “a market that is incredible to be in.” Despite the record smartphone sales that took place last year, he still feels that there is plenty of room for the market to continue its rapid growth.
Based on this projection, and after having sold 125 million iPhones last year, Cook believes Apple can continue to expand its mobile business, including branching out to even more carriers. But when asked if directly about the prospect of more affordable models, Cook declined to comment, other than pointing out that the company lowers the prices of its older models.
How to deliver innovation
Cook also gave some insight into the practices of the Apple staffers. He scoffed at the concept that many other companies employ, hiring employees that are specifically in charge of innovation. Rather, he said that Apple’s success is largely in thanks to their unspoken policy that each and every employee, regardless of their position, is expected to innovate.
“Creativity and innovation are something you can’t flowchart out,” said Cook, as reported by Forbes. “Some things you can, and we do, and we’re very disciplined in those areas. But creativity isn’t one of those. A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a VP of innovation or something. You know, put a for-sale sign on the door.”
This next year will most definitely be an interesting year for Apple.
