Apple’s interim boss has dismissed potential competitors to the iPad — “we’re very, very confident with entering into a fight with anyone,” said Tim Cook during a conference call that followed Apple’s results announcement.
During the call, Cook fielded questions on threats to the iPad, iPhone supply and Mac sales, but not one query about Steve Jobs’s health — the participating analysts must have been warned off.
On current iPad competition
“Well, and if you’re look at what’s shipping today, there’s not much out there as you know. The ones that are using a Windows-based operating system are generally fairly big and heavy and expensive. They have a very weak battery life, they require a keyboard or a stylus as an input device. And from our point of view and what we’ve seen, customers, frankly, just are not interested in them.
“Then you have the Android tablet, the variety that are out shipping today, the operating system wasn’t really designed for a tablet. And Google has said this, and so this is not just an Apple view by any means. And so you wind up having a size of a tablet that is less than what we believe is reasonable or even one that would provide what we feel is a real tablet experience. And so basically, you wind up with kind of a scaled-up smartphone, which is a bizarre product in our view.
On future iPad competitors
“The next-generation Android tablets, which are primarily what you mentioned in terms of the CES, there’s nothing shipping yet, and so I don’t know. Generally, they lack performance specs, they lack prices, they lack timing. And so today, they’re vapour. We’ll assess them as they come out. However, we’re not sitting still. And we have a huge first-mover advantage.”
On Mac sales
“What we saw in the Mac this quarter was we grew 23% at the worldwide level, and that is compared to market growth of only 3%. And so we grew almost 8x the market rate of growth, which is, I think, stunning.”
On cannibalisation
“Now was there any cannibalisation by iPad? Honestly, I don’t know for sure. But yes, I think there is some cannibalisation. But I also think there’s a halo effect. As we’ve seen on the Mac by the iPod some years ago, I think there is a halo effect from Apple product to Apple product.
“And of course, we have introduced millions of people in Asia to Apple through the iPhone. And we’re now introducing many more through the iPad, and I think some of those decide to buy a Mac. And so when you look at the Mac growth in Asia at 67%, and you look at the Japan growth at 56%, and you look at US and Europe growing in double-digits against shrinking markets, if this is cannibalisation, it feels pretty good.”
On iPhone and iPad availability
“We do still have a significant backlog. We are working around the clock to build more and I feel great that the demand is so high, but at this point, I’m not going to predict when supply and demand will meet. We believe the reaction and results from the Verizon customers will be huge.”
On enterprise
“I think that the consumerisation … of the enterprise, is one of the megatrends that are occurring. I think the most forward-looking CIOs are coming to the realisation that the productivity of the person, the creativity of the employees is materially more important than everyone using the same thing. And the ability to write apps in a simple and straightforward manner for the iPhone or the iPad through the SDK is an incredible thing. And you can wind up, literally, running your whole business off of an iPad or an iPhone.
“And so I see an enormous potential there. The numbers are already incredible. And think about this, the iPad started shipping in April, and we’re already up to 80% of the largest companies deploying or piloting the product. This is unheard of, at least, in my dealings with the enterprise over the years.”
