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President Obama meets with Tim Cook, other tech execs to discuss surveillance
On Thursday, President Barack Obama met with Tim Cook and other tech executives from companies like Google and AT&T to discuss government surveillance, reports Politico. Civil liberties leaders were also at the closed-door meeting. The White House declined to comment about the details of the meeting, and all the attendees also declined to comment to Politico about any specifics. However, a White House aide did tell Politico: "This is one of a number of discussions the administration is having with experts and stakeholders in response to the president's directive to have a national dialogue about how to best protect privacy in a digital era, including how to respect privacy while defending our national security." These meetings are no doubt in response to the PRISM document leaks that occurred in June. These documents revealed that major tech companies may be cooperating with the US government to gather surveillance data about users.
Tim Cook meets with China Mobile chairman
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly met with China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua on Tuesday to "discuss matters of cooperation," according to Reuters. The meeting is thought to be a step towards the Chinese wireless carrier offering the iPhone to its customers, though no official statement was released regarding an agreement. With over 700 million customers and the title of the largest wireless operator in the world (by subscribers), a deal to offer the iPhone would be a huge win for both the state-owned China Mobile as well as Apple. China Mobile users have notoriously shied away from 3G and higher speeds in greater numbers than its competitor's subscribers. Whether or not the iPhone can help change that trend remains to be seen.
Tim Cook meets with China Mobile in Beijing
After a less than spectacular couple of months for sales in the Greater China area, Tim Cook paid a visit to Beijing to speak with China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua. Apple's CEO was there to "discuss matters of cooperation," according to Reuters, a conversation that no doubt included bringing iPhones and iPads to the the carrier's massive subscriber base. Apple has yet to issue a comment on the discussion, but a partnership could mean huge numbers for Cupertino, delivering iOS products to the mobile provider with the world's largest subscriber base.
Bob Mansfield leaves Apple's executive team, will assist Tim Cook
The biography for Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of technologies, unexpectedly disappeared from Apple's executive web page over the weekend. The removal of Mansfield's biography was first reported by MacRumors, and AllThingsD followed with an official statement from Apple that confirmed Mansfield is no longer part of Apple's executive leadership. Apple refused to comment on the reasons for Mansfield's departure. "Bob is no longer going to be on Apple's executive team, but will remain at Apple working on special projects reporting to [CEO] Tim [Cook]," Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling told AllThingsD. Mansfield announced his resignation from Apple in June 2012 and returned to the company a few months later as its SVP of Technologies. According to AllThingsD, Mansfield was paid handsomely for his return with a package worth more than $2 million a month. Details on Mansfield's reasons for leaving are not known, but his departure from this executive position less than a year later is surprising.
Eddy Cue also attending Sun Valley Conference
Yesterday we reported that Tim Cook is attending the Sun Valley Conference that takes place in Idaho this week. This year's conference has a heavy focus on content deals and cable television. Given that both those things are extremely important for a future Apple television, it is perhaps telling how significant this Sun Valley Conference is, because not only has Tim Cook shown up, but now Eddy Cue has been spotted as well. Apple's Tim Cook & Eddy Cue arrive at Sun Valley. Big week ahead? "We'll see" says Cook #sunvalley13 pic.twitter.com/QGIRExpMGQ - Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) July 10, 2013 Bloomberg reporter Jon Erlichman spotted Cue, who is Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, along with Cook yesterday. If any content deals are in the works, Cue would be the one leading them on Apple's side. The Sun Valley Conference runs until Friday, but if there are any content deals struck, it would be unlikely that they would be announced publicly just yet.
Tim Cook to attend Sun Valley Conference
Tim Cook is expected to attend the Sun Valley Conference that starts today in Idaho, reports Reuters. The annual conference is hosted by New York-based investment bank Allen & Co. About 300 executives will attend lectures on politics, business and other subjects. This year's conference will be led by Liberty Media Corp Chairman John Malone, known as "the King of Cable" because of all his cable company acquisitions and sales throughout the years. While the conference is closed to the press, Reuters says this year's conference will focus heavily on the future of cable TV. As Apple and other technology companies become increasingly interested in television, it's no surprise that many of Silicon Valley's tech CEOs will be in attendance. Besides Apple's Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg; Amazon's Jeff Bezos; Google's Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt and Larry Page; and Netflix's Reed Hastings will be in attendance. The Sun Valley Conference runs from today until Friday.
Apple strategy to bring more iPhone sales to Apple Stores
9to5Mac is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook headlined a recent three-hour strategy meeting in which he outlined plans to bring a higher percentage of iPhone sales to the company's retail stores. At the present time, only about 20 percent of all iPhones are sold through Apple Stores, with the remaining 80 percent of sales coming from online purchases, other retailers (Walmart and Best Buy, for example) and cellular carriers. While the majority of customers are purchasing their iPhones via other outlets, they rely on Apple Stores for troubleshooting, repair or replacement. Cook apparently laid out the advantages of more in-store purchases to top retail managers from around the world, including the need to expose customers to other Apple technology within the stores and to keep potential customers from being steered away from the iPhone by "biased and bribed" employees at other outlets who may receive incentives for selling competing phones. To lure customers to the stores, Cook reportedly hinted at a series of incentives. The recently announced "Back to School" program that provides a US$50 gift card to students who purchase an iPhone at an Apple Store is apparently part of the plan, and it's expected that more ideas will be floated at a July 28th sales meeting. Ideas such as an iPhone trade-in plan -- where customers can trade in an old or damaged iPhone for a refurbished iPhone 5 -- and a way for Apple Stores to directly match discounted pricing offered by other retailers like RadioShack. iOS 7 was apparently on the docket for the meeting as well, with Cook stressing the criticality of the updated mobile OS to the company's future fortunes and executives discussing how best to promote the new version when it ships this fall.
Apple's board modifies Tim Cook's 2011 stock award to be based on performance
According to a filing Apple made with the SEC on Friday, Apple's Board of Directors decided to adjust Tim Cook's compensation package as it pertains to his stock options. When Cook became the CEO of Apple in August 2011, he was awarded 1 million restricted stock units, half of which are scheduled to vest on August 24, 2016, with the other half slated to vest on August 24, 2021. Of course, in order to claim said shares, Cook must remain employed by Apple throughout each vesting date. With the updated SEC filing, Cook's stock compensation will now be based, in part, on the company's performance. Apple's SEC filing reads in part: In outreach discussions this year with many of our largest shareholders, we heard that they believe it is appropriate to attach performance criteria to a portion of our future executive stock awards that have been entirely time-based (i.e., vesting for continued service) in the past. We agree and, beginning today, the Company will include a performance element in new stock awards to our executive officers. CEO Leadership by Example Mr. Cook is leading this initiative by example and has the full support of the Board of Directors. He asked the Committee to apply a performance metric to his outstanding 2011 CEO equity award as well as any potential future awards. After careful deliberation, the Committee has approved a modification to Mr. Cook's 2011 award. Under the adopted modification, Mr. Cook will forfeit a portion of the 2011 CEO equity award, which was previously entirely time-based, if the Company does not achieve certain performance criteria. While the Committee generally believes that a performance-based award should have both a downside and an upside component, at Mr. Cook's request, the modification does not contain an upside opportunity for overachievement of these criteria. As a result of implementing a modification with only downside risk, the Committee has determined that a portion of the original grant should vest earlier than originally scheduled. So just how will the Board of Directors measure Apple's performance under the helm of Cook? Well, the SEC filing notes that the Board consulted with shareholders and compensation experts and ultimately concluded that they'd measure Cook's performance as CEO by measuring the company's "total shareholder return" (TSR) as compared to other companies. With the modified plan in place, Cook will now receive 100,000 shares in 2016 and an additional 100,000 shares in 2021. The remaining 800,000 shares will then be divided up into 10 installments of 80,000 that will vest each year since the award was initially granted in 2011, assuming of course that Apple's annual performance is up to snuff with the TSR of the S&P 500. The relative TSR criteria will be applied to each 80,000 RSU tranche scheduled to vest on each anniversary of the original August 24, 2011 grant date, and will compare Apple's TSR to the TSR of the companies in the S&P 500 using public data derived from Standard and Poor's. If Apple's performance is within the top third of that group, the RSUs in the tranche for that year will vest in full. If its performance is in the middle third, the RSUs in the tranche for that year will be reduced by 25%, and if its performance is in the bottom third, the RSUs in that tranche will be reduced by 50%.
The Wall Street Journal on Apple's Craig Federighi
While watching Apple's keynote earlier this week, I was particularly struck by Craig Federighi's presentation. He was affable, felt comfortable on stage, was informative, interacted with the audience and even had a few zingers to boot. That said, it's likely no coincidence that Federighi received the most stage time on Monday, handling presentation duties both for OS X Mavericks and iOS 7. The Wall Street Journal today has an interesting profile on Federighi, an important member of Apple's executive team that many people may not know much about. The lanky, 44-year-old engineer has a long Apple pedigree. He worked at Next, the other computer company founded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and joined Apple when it acquired the company in 1997. But despite earning the respect of colleagues for his focus and affability, he has remained behind the scenes for years. Mr. Federighi spent much of his career working on enterprise software, which has never been Apple's focus. Interestingly enough, the Journal notes that Federighi's career began alongside Scott Forstall when the two worked at NeXT together back in the early '90s. While Forstall quickly rose through the ranks after Apple acquired NeXT, Federighi's enterprise-centric expertise eventually prompted him to leave Apple for Ariba where he would ultimately become the company's CTO. In 2009, Federighi returned to Apple to head up OS X engineering. While Scott Forstall was reportedly a divisive figure within Apple, Federighi appears to be more of a team player who operates by consensus. Consequently, the Journal notes that some decisions regarding Apple's software direction have taken longer to implement. All in all, it might be too early to call Federighi the new face of Apple, but I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing a lot more of him at Apple special events in the future. The Journal has a lot more on Federighi that's definitely worth a read. Incidentally, my favorite Federighi quip during the keynote was when he announced that OS X Mavericks would finally offer support for multiple displays. The crowd began applauding wildly, whereupon Federighi jokingly clarified that Apple's wasn't actually giving away new displays to users, remarking that it's "just software." Good stuff.
John McCain applauds Tim Cook for automatic app updates in iOS 7
Back in May, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Apple CEO Tim Cook, after grilling him on Apple's tax practices, why he constantly finds himself needing to update the apps on his iPhone. "What I really wanted to ask," said McCain in a lighthearted moment, "is why the hell do I have to keep updating apps on my iPhone all the time?" Cook smiled politely and responded, "We're trying to make things better all the time." Now I'm guessing that McCain was far too busy handling more important matters than keeping up with the latest developments from Apple's WWDC keynote, but he did manage to get wind of one of the one upcoming features in iOS 7. In a tweet sent out on Monday afternoon, McCain said: Thanks to Tim Cook for the automatic iphone app updates! #apple #wwdc - John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) June 10, 2013 So now the waiting game begins -- will Tim Cook sign up for Twitter and give it a re-tweet?
Multitasking and notifications revamped in iOS 7
Tim Cook just said during WWDC 2013 that multitasking in iOS has been revamped completely. iOS 7 will now monitor your app usage even more closely than before, meaning it will have apps like Facebook pull in news and other updates in the background, getting them all ready to roll when you launch the app. There's also a new panel for app controls called Control Center and a new look for UI when switching apps The iPhone will now also adjust networking conditions to save battery life (so hopefully no more running out your battery while frantically trying to connect to WiFi), and there's a new notification management system that looks a lot cleaner and straightforward than the current implementation. These new features look terrific -- we'll get a look at them running in iOS 7 hopefully soon.
More than 600 million iOS devices sold, Tim Cook says
Tim Cook is on stage in California right now talking iOS numbers, and as you might imagine, they're big. There are more than 600 million iOS devices sold worldwide, according to Mr. Cook, and almost half of those just since the last year's WWDC. Smartphone usage market share is high, with iOS garnering 50 percent more usage than other platforms, and the iPad is even bigger in the tablet category, with 82 percent of usage as compared to 18 percent of "other" tablets. Users are also satisfied, with the iPhone winning multiple awards in its lifetime, and boasting a 97 percent satisfaction rate. Users are also unified on a single iOS install, with 93 percent of users using iOS 6, which Cook joked was a far cry from Android's situation. Cook then segued all of these numbers and this satisfaction into the announcement of iOS 7.
Apple praised in China for environmental policies
Chinese environmental activist Ma Jun recently said that Apple has made major strides towards becoming more environmentally friendly and transparent with respect to the company's operations in China. While speaking at the Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu, China, Ma explained that Apple has recently transfromed from a company that was completely closed off about its environmental practices in China to one of the more environmentally progressive tech companies in the country. Adam Lashinsky of Fortune reports: Ma is a well-known former journalist who has devoted considerable energy to water issues in China. His group collects pollution data on Chinese companies and shares it with Western companies to help them better understand the ramifications of their supply chain partners. He said Apple not only has begun cooperating with his organization, it has become a positive force on the overall supply chain ecosystem in China. "They have gone the furthest in motivating key suppliers," Jun explained. Since taking over CEO duties at Apple, Tim Cook has been outspoken about Apple's responsibility to uphold high standards with respect to both environmental and labor conditions abroad. For instance, following the series of Pulitzer Prize-winning hit pieces about Apple's operations in China, Cook penned a letter to Apple employees highlighting all that Apple does to create satisfactory working conditions while also promising that Apple will never "stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain." Indeed, earlier this week covered how Cook, while speaking at Duke University this past April, explained that he views environmental responsibility as a key part of his framework of ethical leadership. When I think of ethics, I think of leaving things better than you found them, and to me that goes from the environment to how you work with suppliers with labor questions to the carbon footprint of your products to the things you choose to support to the way you treat your employees. Your whole persona fits under that umbrella... Fortune adds: Apple typically maintains that its environmental and labor-rights records have always been good. Yet the Chinese group's report makes clear that if nothing else, Apple's attitude toward discussing its record and opening itself up to criticism have changed. The report notes that there was a noticeable change in Apple's policies in China once Tim Cook assumed control of the company. Lastly, and perhaps an indication of Apple's increased efforts to have a positive impact on the environment, Tim Cook revealed during this year's All Things D conference that Apple had recently hired former EPA chief Lisa Jackson to coordinate Apple's environmental practices.
Asking Tim Cook the right questions
Matthew Panzarino over at The Next Web has a really insightful piece up discussing how interviewers and analysts afforded the chance to ask Apple CEO Tim Cook questions aren't really taking full advantage of the opportunity. Following Tim Cook's interview at this year's All Things D conference, there seemed to be a collective yawn from people who found Cook's time on stage to be particularly uninteresting and not terribly informative. Adam Lashinsky, who perhaps went a bit overboard in his critique, penned a piece titled, "The unbearable lightness of what Tim Cook says." Here's a snippet: It is a strange sight to see the CEO of Apple, a company known for its brilliance and vision, decline over and over to discuss just about anything in any detail. It was the second year in a row Cook opened the prestigious AllthingsD conference and the second year in a row he divulged precious little about what is going on at Apple. Panzarino posits that maybe we're asking Tim Cook the wrong questions, and I'm inclined to agree. It's no secret that Apple is a notoriously secretive company. While some companies in the tech world like making grand announcements about products still in development or talking about internal strategies, Apple shuns doing so like the plague. Apple views product secrecy as a competitive advantage, and any interviewer who knows even a little about Apple should know that its executives will not, under any circumstance, talk about what new products they have in the pipeline. And yet, without fail, every time Tim Cook is open to fielding questions, we hear an endless stream of questions about the iWatch, future iPhone models and Apple's mythical HDTV. In response to these somewhat generic questions, Tim Cook feeds us generic answers. I mean, what else do you expect him to do? Then of course, there are often asked questions which never lead to anywhere interesting. "Is Apple less cool of a company than it used to be?" "Is Apple looking at any big acquisition these days?" At this point, I could probably predict half of Tim Cook's answers in an interview before the questions are even asked. Do any of these gems sound familiar? "We are focused on delighting our customers." "Apple is the world's most innovative company." "When you work on hardware, software and services together, that's where the magic happens." Yawn. But here's the thing about Cook -- if you get beyond trying to figure out what products Apple will release next, he actually has a lot of interesting things to say. Panzarino writes: But these days [interviewers] are almost beholden to ask the "what's next" questions that everyone expects every year. If they don't ask them, everyone will complain about them not doing so, and yet everyone complains when the same questions get the same non-answers. It's got to be a tough position to be in. But my feeling on this, and I think that it's shared by people both inside and outside of Apple, is that it's time to start asking him better stuff. I couldn't agree more. If we look back at Tim Cook's All Things D interview, one of his most interesting answers dealt with the potential for Google Glass to succeed in the marketplace. I think there are some positive points in the product. I think it's probably more likely to appeal to certain vertical markets. ... I wear glasses because I have to. I don't know a lot of people that wear them that don't have to. They want them to be light and unobtrusive and reflect their fashion. ... I think from a mainstream point of view [glasses as wearable computing devices] are difficult to see. I think the wrist is interesting. The wrist is natural. ... To convince people they have to wear something, it has to be incredible. If we asked a room of 20-year-olds to stand up if they're wearing a watch, I don't think anyone would stand up. What's more, we recently posted about Tim Cook's visit to the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University where he participated in the school's "Real Conversations with Real Leaders" symposium. There, Cook opined on leadership, what makes a good collaborative environment, the importance of intuition and a whole lot more. The takeaway here, I think, is that when Cook isn't preoccupied with evading questions about Apple's secretive product plans, he is more than capable of engaging in an interesting discussion on a wide range of topics. There's no denying that Cook isn't as engaging or dynamic of a personality as Steve Jobs, who was effectively a walking soundbite of insight, controversy and opinion. Jobs, of course, was never prone to discussing future product plans either, but it didn't take much for him to go off on a tangent regarding some bigger picture type issue in the technology realm, whether it be the state of the music industry or the problems associated with Blu-ray licensing. Cook, in contrast, isn't going to explore such topics unless asked directly. Admittedly, Cook isn't the most exciting speaker on the planet, but if interviewers starting asking him better questions, I imagine we'd start getting more interesting answers.
Reuters: Apple to show off iRadio streaming service next week
Reuters is reporting that among the announcements we'll see at next week's WWDC keynote, Apple will introduce a new music-streaming service called iRadio. The service will be free and ad-supported, Reuters says those in the know claimed, and will feature ads from the iAds team. The service is designed to dive into the already crowded market of music-streaming services, which includes Pandora, Rdio, Spotify, Slacker Radio and a number of other sizable options. I will buy this rumor, but I don't know if Apple's plan is simply to just introduce "another" music streaming service. The company has been working hard with iCloud and iTunes Match to get you access to your music from any of your devices, and my guess is that any "iRadio" reveal would be along those lines, aimed at providing you direct access to any tunes you want to listen to from anywhere. The iAds division was of course put together for running ads on apps, but it makes sense that Apple would want an in-house solution for them to sell, so it sounds like this could work. As with all of these rumors, we won't know what's true until Apple actually takes the stage next week. But at least we don't have too much longer to wait.
Tim Cook talks leadership, collaboration, intuition and more [Video]
In late April, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University as part of the school's "Real Conversations with Real Leaders" symposium. Cook, as you may know, earned an MBA from Duke in 1988. A few days ago, Duke posted video vignettes of Cook discussing a number of topics ranging from ethical leadership to the Apple CEO's take on career planning. In the video below, Cook discusses the importance of intuition while relaying how his gut directed him to Apple against the better judgment of others and his own analytical mind. Remember, Cook joined Apple after Steve Jobs convinced him to leave his position at Compaq. I remember forming a list of plus and minuses and couldn't get the chart to work out the way I wanted it to, because I wanted something to say, "This says I should go to Apple." But it would not. Nothing financially would do that. I talked to people I trusted that knew me and they said, "This is not what you should do." People said, "You're just crazy. You're working for the top PC company in the world. How can you even think of doing this? You've lost your mind." And yet, that voice said, "Go west young man, go west." " On collaboration, Cook had this to say: You look for wicked-smart people. You look for people who appreciate different points of view. You look for people who care enough that they have an idea at 11 at night and they want to call and talk to you about it. Because they're so excited about it, they want to push the idea further, and they believe that somebody can help them push the idea another step instead of them doing everything themselves. When asked for his opinion on ethical leadership, Cook answered: When I think of ethics, I think of leaving things better than you found them, and to me that goes from the environment to how you work with suppliers with labor questions to the carbon footprint of your products to the things you choose to support to the way you treat your employees. Your whole persona fits under that umbrella... And that is what we try to do at Apple in very simple ways, it's the way I try and lead my life. Each of the videos are pretty short and are well worth checking out if you're interested in gleaning some more insight into the mind of Apple's CEO. You can check out the full selection of videos over here. As a parting shot, here's Cook discussing the three things he focuses on most. via 9to5Mac
The Daily Roundup for 05.29.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Tim Cook explains why Apple only makes one iPhone [Video]
During yesterday's All Things D kickoff interview, Walt Mossberg asked Tim Cook why Apple hasn't yet released different iPhone models for a range of demographics and regions. If a varied product lineup worked so successfully for the iPod, Mossberg wondered, why not implement a similar strategy for the iPhone. In short, amidst a sea of increasingly popular Android handsets with large screens, Mossberg wanted to know why Apple has continued to stick with a one-size-fits-all iPhone strategy. Cook first responded that while Apple hasn't yet released an iPhone with a bigger screen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't in the future. Cook continued: It takes a lot of work, a lot of really detailed work to do a phone right when you manage the hardware, the software and the services around it. We've chosen to put our energies into getting those right, and have made the choices in order to do that so we haven't become de-focused working multiple lines. Cook also pointed out that Apple's varied selection of iPods wasn't done haphazardly, explaining that each distinct iPod model served a different role and addressed different needs. "And so on the phone, that is the question," Cook continued. "Are we now at a point to serve enough people that we need to do that?" Pressing forward, Mossberg asked if a large screen is different enough of an experience that it's now worth pursuing, especially in light of the fact that consumers seem to enjoy devices with larger screens. Cook responded: At a macro level, it might. A large screen today comes with a lot of trade-offs. Customers clearly are looking at size, but they are also looking at things like, do the photos show the proper color, the white balance, reflectivity, battery life, brightness, the longevity of the display. So there are a whole bunch of things that are very important to the display. So what our customers want is for us to weigh those and come out with a decision. And at this point, we felt that the Retina display that we're shipping is overwhelmingly the best. In a hypothetical world where trade-offs don't exist, you could see that screen size would be a differentiation. It's certainly an interesting take, but I don't quite buy into Cook's notion that average consumers are making extremely informed decisions about screen size when picking out a smartphone. On the contrary, I think consumers are easily lured into purchasing a device with a big screen and vibrant colors and don't give much, if any, thought to metrics such as white balance and the longevity of the display. You can check out Cook's full answer below.
Full video from Tim Cook's D11 appearance now available
Our staff has been pushing out articles about Tim Cook's D11 appearance last night, and now the complete video is available courtesy of AllThingsD. The one-hour, 21-minute video is fascinating, not for any announcements that were made or not made by Cook, but for the constant pressure from hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher to get him to spill the beans. For details, check out the following posts: Executive change-up at Apple has been great; Jony has been "really key" to iOS 7 design Apple has already acquired nine companies in 2013 More breakout posts will be forthcoming later today.
Tim Cook says Apple has already acquired nine companies in 2013
During his appearance at All Things D last night, Tim Cook mentioned that Apple in 2013 is acquiring companies at a faster clip than in years past. In previous years, Cook noted, Apple acquired an average of six companies per year. Not even six months into 2013, Cook explained Apple has already acquired nine companies. Of course, Cook stressed that Apple isn't going to announce all of its acquisitions, but rather just the ones it has to. This certainly makes sense given Apple's penchant for surgical acquisitions. For a company as secretive as Apple, having each and every acquisition made public would undoubtedly shed light on Apple's future software ambitions, and perhaps, product roadmap. While on the topic of acquisitions, Cook reiterated a point he's made in the past; namely that he isn't opposed to the idea of a large-scale acquisition, but would only feel comfortable pulling the trigger if the targeted company would help further Apple's product goals. We're always looking; I think we'll do more of these in the future. We aren't currently looking at a big one, but we aren't opposed to doing that if it made sense. We ask: "Would it help us make a great product, and would the culture fit at Apple?" As a point of interest, you might recall that Apple in late 2009 did attempt to buy out Dropbox. On the flip side, Cook confirmed that Apple did not make a bid to acquire the popular navigation app Waze. As for Apple's nine acquisitions thus far in 2013, the only one that has been made public was its reported $20 million deal to acquire the "indoor GPS" company WiFiSLAM back in March.
