Tim Cook sat down with Charlie Rose for what looks like a pretty unscripted interview. A couple of clips have been made available ahead of the first part airing on television tonight, including Cook’s admission that Steve Jobs’ office at Apple remains untouched to this day.
When pressed about Apple’s plans for TV, Cook revealed that the Apple TV now has 20 million users. “It’s far exceeded the ‘hobby’ label we’ve placed on it,” said Cook. He also said he thinks watching TV is like “entering a time capsule” and that the whole experience is stuck in the 70s.
Another topic of conversation was Apple’s purchase of Beats. Cook shared a story about how he was skeptical about Beats Music until he used it one night. Based on the few minutes we’ve already seen from the interview, it looks like the full conversation will prove to be pretty interesting.
The first part of Charlie Rose’s two-part interview with Cook airs today. It should be available in full on the show’s website at some point soon.
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8 responses to “Tim Cook opens up about Apple TV, Beats and more in candid interview”
“The interface is terrible!” Cha, looked at the Apple TV UI lately there, Tim?
I have to agree with you there, however compared to say (in the UK) Virgin Media and BT’s interface, its terrible compared to the one Apple TV provides. The Apple TV UI needs an upgrade, but in comparison to Cable providers in the UK its about 3x better. However that is just my opinion on the matter
The appletv is leaps and bounds ahead of everything else though.
I think my main grievance is the input mechanism. I’ve never seen anything as unfriendly as trying to search the store or YouTube by clicking around that little aluminum remote. I’m aware I could use any i-device to look, but I don’t usually have any with me when I’m on the couch. The thing needs a better remote at the least.
if you have an ipod/ipad/iphone, you can use that as the remote. we’ve long sincel lost the little silver remote. and we don’t care because our phones are the new remotes. they work over wifi, so it doesn’t have to be pointed directly at the device. if i’m upstairs and i ask my kids to come upstairs, and they don’t listen because they’re too distracted, i can just pause the tv from upstairs, and *then* they start clamoring and run up stairs to figure out what i want.
How many damn interviews do Tim Cook & co want per year?! Just focus on doing good stuff!
TV is old but Apple can reinvent it with iTV…
I am currently doing what I think Apple is considering with Apple TV. However I had to jump through many technical hurdles to make it happen. Apple will make it simple and likely add interesting features such as a social component. I cut the cord and automagically retrieve any TV show and movie to a media server then stream it throughout the house or sync to mobile devices for offline viewing (plane / train). It works almost flawlessly and automagically. There are hiccups now and then when a download fails and I have to manually intervene. The setup of the system is complex and the media storage requirements can be enormous. But I have broken out of the box and the freedom is liberating. A new temptation is an old one from my TiVo days; to binge watch when I have the option to do something else. The way of things with todays TV makes no sense. Watching by broadcast and having viewing restrictions both domestic and international no longer makes sense. Why should I have to wait a year for Downton Abby’s current season or wait till 9pm Eastern for Doctor Who? Or miss fantastic shows like Broadchurch until it’s rebooted for the US as Gracepoint? Or miss Game of Thrones just because I don’t want a cable tv subscription and HBO. I would go legit if these old world boundaries were lifted and Apple made it reality the same way I went legit with music. Sure, I downloaded music like most others. But now I use Apple’s iTunes Store. The restrictions (aforementioned distribution restrictions and DRM) and the high cost prevent me from doing the same with their TV/Movie content.