Apple and the U.S. economy will recover from the coronavirus pandemic despite the current “challenging” times, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said Thursday in a broadcast interview, remaining “bullish in the long haul.”
Williams reiterated recent comments by Chief Executive Tim Cook saying in a Fox Business interview, “I am optimistic. As you look around, you see the resilience of the people working through this challenging time. And when I take a look inside of Apple, I couldn’t be more encouraged.”
Williams said that despite it being a tough past four months for Apple, it launched three new products, including a revamped 13-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro.
“I feel great about the economy in the long haul,” he commented. “And it’s just a matter of getting from here to there.”
Making clear that he was speaking as COO and not an economist, he stressed that “It’s hard to make a prediction on exactly when and how [business and the economy] will roll out, but I feel great about the long haul.”
Williams explained that its supply of components and products was running mostly at its peak despite issues related to the pandemic.
iPhone 12 … no comment
Regarding continued speculation that the iPhone 12 might be delayed, Williams would neither confirm nor deny reports, as is Apple’s standard procedure regarding future products.
“We just put our head down and don’t pay a lot of attention to the latest sort of speculation about our products,” he commented. “We are getting stuff done.”
Plays down spreading production worldwide
Williams also reiterated comments Cook recently made that Apple has not spread itself too thin by manufacturing many of its components and products in China. In the first quarter of this year, much of China was shut down for business due to the coronavirus, which impacted the availability of many Apps products and delayed a number of new product announcements.
“Our products are global products and so… they aren’t built in one location,” he said. “There’s a real misperception about that. And our products are built around the world, with a ton of that right here in the United States … I see we’ll have a global supply chain for quite some time and that’s going to allow us to make the very best products for our customers.”
