All Things D: Is Apple in Trouble?
庫克專訪：蘋果遇到麻煩了嗎？
蘋
果
公司(Apple Inc.)首席執行長庫克(Tim
Cook)最近因一系列原因而如坐針氈﹐美國國會就蘋果利用海外子公司來降低公司總體納稅負擔的事進行調查就是庫克遇到的煩心事之一。而對一些人來說﹐他
們更擔憂的是蘋果股價近期出現的下滑﹐一些批評人士說﹐蘋果在創造令人激動的消費電子產品方面已經不如從前了﹐這種言論一定程度上助推了蘋果股價的下跌。庫 克日前與《華爾街日報》旗下知名科技博客網站All Things Digital的兩位主持人莫博士(Walt Mossberg)和斯韋舍爾(Kara Swisher)談到了蘋果在扭轉頹勢方面正在做的事。他認為﹐目前開發實用型可穿戴智能裝置的時機已經成熟﹐谷歌眼鏡(Google Glass)和耐克腕帶(Nike FuelBand)都屬於這類產品。
以下是經編輯過的訪談節選。
莫博士：蘋果遇到麻煩了嗎？
庫克：絕對沒有。本財年的上半年(我們公司的財政年度從10月份開始﹐所以上半財年是從去年10月到今年3月)﹐我們賣出了8,500萬部iPhone和4,200萬部IPad。iPad的銷售增幅顯然非常、非常大。
斯韋舍爾：不管這麼說公平與否﹐但蘋果的股價確實出現了史無前例的大幅下跌。你如何看待這件事﹐還有﹐與以往相比蘋果現在有了許多真正難纏的競爭對手。
庫克： 我們的競爭對手一直都不好對付。我們仍在與微軟(Microsoft)競爭﹐特別是在個人電腦領域。我們曾與戴爾公司(Dell)等硬件企業競爭﹐而這些 公司當時曾被外界視為好得不可思議。經過了這麼長的一段時間跨度﹐人們現在已經改變了對這些公司的看法﹐而我們依舊風光並有戰鬥力。
我們的目標一直是生產出最好的產品﹐所有我們總是能回歸到這一初始目標。
斯韋舍爾：這麼說﹐你沒有受到上述那些外界看法的困擾？畢竟這些看法就擺在那兒﹐並且你會越來越多地聽到這些看法。人們為蘋果感到擔憂。
庫克：是啊。如果你看看蘋果的股價﹐就會發現股價表現令人沮喪﹐而我們公司的股價是人們很關注的東西。對投資者和我們所有人來說﹐這一直是令人沮喪的。但蘋果股價的這種表現卻也並非史無前例﹐多做些瞭解你就會發現﹐蘋果以往經歷過許多這種股價的起起伏伏。
斯韋舍爾：你去年在接受我們採訪時談到了電視﹐似乎非常看好這一產品。現在不再那麼看好了嗎？蘋果公司的電視項目現在情況如何？
庫克：我們目前仍通過Apple TV在電視領域施展拳腳。有幾年時間﹐我們差不多賣了幾十萬台﹐現在我們已經累計賣了1,300萬多台﹐其中約有一半是在去年售出的。所以說﹐這個業務發現了更多喜愛Apple TV體驗的顧客。
相關報導
斯韋舍爾：我們來談談可穿戴產品。請問你對谷歌眼鏡有什麼看法？
庫克：這個產品里有一些加分項。但它是否可能產生廣泛的吸引力﹐這一點我覺得很難看到。
可穿戴產品非常有意思﹐我覺得這也許是科技業可以“深挖”的領域。
莫博士：你認為可穿戴產品在後PC時代會佔有一席之地嗎？不僅僅侷限於現在那種健身的時候使用的一些設備。
庫克：你知道﹐我自己是戴這種健身裝備的﹐就是耐克腕帶。我覺得耐克在這方面做得十分出色。這個產品針對的是具體領域﹐與iOS兼容得非常好。
Asa Mathat | D: All Things Digital
庫克
莫博士：蘋果也是其中一員嗎？
庫克：我不想回答這個問題﹐但我覺得這是蘋果樹上另外一根很關鍵的樹枝。想想後PC時代﹐iPhone推動我們朝這個方向快速進發﹐然後是平板電腦讓這股潮流加速。我覺得可穿戴產品也許是另外一根樹枝。
斯韋舍爾：你對什麼可穿戴產品感興趣？眼鏡還是服裝？哪個是你關注的領域？
庫克： 我本人是戴眼鏡的﹐因為我必需戴﹐否則就看不見東西。我沒怎麼見過不必戴眼鏡但卻不辭辛勞戴著的人。所以我覺得從主流觀點出發﹐這是很難講的。不過手腕很 有意思。你知道﹐我現在戴著這個Nike+腕帶﹐感覺還挺自然的。但可穿戴產品要想獲得成功﹐首先要說服人們這個產品非常棒﹐大家都想要戴。因為如果現在 房間里全是十幾歲到二十幾歲的年輕人﹐我們說：請戴著表的人站起來﹐我不確定是否會有人站起來。
Apple Inc. AAPL -0.41% Chief ExecutiveTim Cook has been in the hot seat lately for a host of reasons, including a congressional inquiry into his company's use of overseas subsidiaries to reduce its overall tax bill. Of greater concern to some is the recent slide in Apple shares, fueled in part by critics who say Apple has lost its touch at creating exciting consumer-electronics products.
Mr. Cook spoke with All Things Digital's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about what Apple is doing to turn things around. One area he sees as ripe for development: wearables, or computing devices worn as an accessory, like and the Nike NKE -1.20% +FuelBand.
Edited excerpts of their interview follow.
'Absolutely Not'
MR. MOSSBERG: Is Apple in trouble?
MR. COOK: Absolutely not. The first half of this year─we start our year in October, so it's October to March─we sold 85 million iPhones. IPad, 42 million. And the iPad of course is growing very, very significantly.
MS. SWISHER:Whether it's fair or not, there's a precipitous, unprecedented downfall, too, of the stock. So how do you look at that─and then, this time, you have a lot of really tough rivals compared to before.
MR. COOK: We've always had competent rivals. We still fight against Microsoft, MSFT -0.37% particularly in the PC space. We fought against hardware companies that were viewed at the time to be incredible, like Dell. Now, in the long arc of time, people change their mind on companies, but we've always suited up and fought.
Our North Star is always on making the best products, and so we always come back to that.
MS. SWISHER:So the outside perception doesn't bother you? Because it's clearly there and you hear it more and more. People are worried for Apple.
MR. COOK: Yeah. If you look at the stock, which is a lot of what people focus on, the stock price has been frustrating. It's been frustrating for investors and all of us. This, too, is not unprecedented. I guess the beauty of being around for a while in this is that you see many cycles.
MS. SWISHER: You talked last year here about television, seemed very bullish on it. Not so much anymore? Where is the television project right now?
MR. COOK: We're still playing in TV through Apple TV. For several years we were selling a few hundred thousand and so forth. We've now sold over 13 million, and about half of those in the last year. And so that business has found many, many more customers that love the Apple TV experience.
I think many of us would agree there's lots of things about the TV experience that can be better. We answered some of those, clearly not all of those, with Apple TV and we're going to continue to make that better.
MS. SWISHER: Let's talk about wearables. Google Glass, what's your take on it?
MR. COOK: There are some positive points in the product. The likelihood that it has a broad-range appeal, that's tough to see.
Wearables is incredibly interesting, and I think it could be a profound area for technology.
MR. MOSSBERG:So is part of the post-PC era wearables that go beyond just sort of fitness devices that we have now?
MR. COOK: You know I wear this, it's the FuelBand. I think Nike did a great job with this. It's for a specific area, it's integrated well with iOS.
There are lots of gadgets, wearables, in this space now. This [FuelBand] does primarily one thing; the ones that do more than one, there's nothing great out there that I've seen. So I think there's lots of things to solve in this space. But it's an area ripe for exploration, ripe for us all getting exciting about. I think there will be tons of companies playing in this.
MR. MOSSBERG:And will Apple be one of them?
MR. COOK: I don't want to answer that. But I see it as another very key branch of the tree. You think about the post-PC era─the iPhone pushed us toward that fast, and then the tablet accelerated it. I think wearables could be another branch.
MS. SWISHER: Where are you interested in it? The glasses? The clothing? What's the area?
MR. COOK: I wear glasses because I have to. I can't see without them. I don't know a lot of people that wear them that don't have to. So I think from a mainstream point of view, it's difficult to see. I think the wrist is interesting. You know, I'm wearing this [a Nike+FuelBand] on my wrist. It's somewhat natural. But for something to work here, you first have to convince people it's so incredible that they want to wear it. Because if we had a room full of 10- to 20-year-olds and we said, 'Everybody stand up that has a watch on,' I'm not sure anybody would stand up.
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