Cook Says Apple Invests In Next Generation Products
Apple' s annual shareholder meeting was held on Friday at the company's Cupertino, Calif. headquarters, and and the company's CEO Tim Cook spoke about Apple's efforts to keep innovating, Apple TV and more.
Cook promised Apple is working on new gadgets that will expand the company's product line-up beyond smartphones, tablets, music players and personal computers. He said that some of the new products may be viewed as "extensions of what we're already doing," while others are "things that you can't see."
He was asked about Apple's manufacturing efforts in the U.S. and pointed to a plant a supplier recently opened in Arizona to produce sapphire exclusively for Apple, further fueing speculation that Apple may use the super-hard sapphire to produce scratch-resistant screens for future iPhones. However, he added that other Apple suppliers already make glass for iPhones in the U.S.
Cook reiterated a promise that Apple?s board will consider expanding a plan to purchase up to $60 billion of its shares by 2015, and planned an announcement within 60 days. The company's shareholders also re-elected all of Apple's board members.
Speking about Apple TV, the set-top box that the company has called a "hobby" in the past, Cook said that the product generated more than $1 billion in revenue from hardware and programming in the past fiscal year. Apple is rumored to be working on an updated version of the device. Apple fans are also hoping that Apple will come out with a television. At the meeting, Cook just noted that Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and service, had been hard at work steadily adding new content options to Apple TV in recent months.
He also disclosed that Apple said it sends "several billion" messages on its iMessage service every day, and that users also send 15 million to 20 million FaceTime messages every day.
Cook also attacked Google, saying that the majority of users of Google's rival Android mobile operating system are using older versions of the software, presenting a security threat. In contrast, he said that 89 percent of people using devices based on Apple's iOS operating system are using the most recent version of the software.
He was asked about Apple's manufacturing efforts in the U.S. and pointed to a plant a supplier recently opened in Arizona to produce sapphire exclusively for Apple, further fueing speculation that Apple may use the super-hard sapphire to produce scratch-resistant screens for future iPhones. However, he added that other Apple suppliers already make glass for iPhones in the U.S.
Cook reiterated a promise that Apple?s board will consider expanding a plan to purchase up to $60 billion of its shares by 2015, and planned an announcement within 60 days. The company's shareholders also re-elected all of Apple's board members.
Speking about Apple TV, the set-top box that the company has called a "hobby" in the past, Cook said that the product generated more than $1 billion in revenue from hardware and programming in the past fiscal year. Apple is rumored to be working on an updated version of the device. Apple fans are also hoping that Apple will come out with a television. At the meeting, Cook just noted that Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and service, had been hard at work steadily adding new content options to Apple TV in recent months.
He also disclosed that Apple said it sends "several billion" messages on its iMessage service every day, and that users also send 15 million to 20 million FaceTime messages every day.
Cook also attacked Google, saying that the majority of users of Google's rival Android mobile operating system are using older versions of the software, presenting a security threat. In contrast, he said that 89 percent of people using devices based on Apple's iOS operating system are using the most recent version of the software.
