Tim Cook sure racks up the air miles! This week, Apple’s CEO visited Canada, where he made a surprise appearance at a downtown Toronto Apple Store, and took in a Maple Leafs game for good measure.
Incredibly, this is Cook’s first ever visit to Canada since assuming the role of Apple CEO back in August 2011.
The most memorable part of Cook’s visit to the Toronto Apple Store was dropping in unannounced on a group of Grade 7 students from Scarborough, Ontario, who were learning to program robots using Swift.
Thanks @MapleLeafs and @RealKyper for an exciting night of hockey! Tough Loss. #GoLeafsGo / Merci aux @MapleLeafs et à @RealKyper pour une soirée de hockey enlevante! Ce n’est que partie remise. #GoLeafsGo pic.twitter.com/tYdqQH1RAo
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 23, 2018
“Swift came out of the fundamental recognition that coding languages were too geeky. Most students would look at them and say, ‘that’s not for me,” Cook said. “That’s not our view. Our view is that coding is a horizontal skill like your native languages or mathematics, so we wanted to design a programming language that is as easy to learn as our products are to use.”
Cook has frequently spoken about the importance of learning to code during his time as Apple CEO. In this case, the message ties in with the recent expansion of Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” initiative, providing learners with a curriculum for learning to code in Swift, the language frequently used for coding iOS apps.
Tim Cook also talked about Canada, describing it as an “extremely important” market for Apple. “We have a great team in Canada,” he said. In Canada alone, Cook said that the Apple has helped create 120,000 jobs in the country, including developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and more.
Afterwards, Cook attended a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game — although it was unfortunately a 2-4 loss to Colorado Avalanche.
Source: The Globe and Mail
