Not the first time and not the last Tim Cook holds a “private event” within Apple, addressed to employees. Recently he and Jeff Williams (new COO, or COO) used Town Hall to talk a little about a variety of issues, as reported by 9to5Mac.
iPhone
The conversation started by giving Apple's last quarter numbers a little context. Cook said the company had sold enough iPhones (74.8 million) to supply the populations of New York, London, Beijing and Shanghai.
Speaking about the company's dependence on the iPhone today, Cook said that the smartphone still has a lot of growth potential, using as an example the low penetration of 4G networks in emerging markets like India. The country, moreover, should receive a lot of attention from Apple in the short term the company is preparing to open the first stores and intends to enter everything in the country.
The CEO continues to believe in China's potential and its importance as a whole for Apple's future. Soon, 40 stores will be opened in the country.
On a possible low-cost iPhone, Cook said that Apple does not need to launch something like this in emerging markets. Instead, he mentioned Apple research which indicates that people in these regions are willing to spend more to have a better experience.
Apple Watch
Apple's CEO also spoke of Ma's newest product, saying that sales at the end of the year were great. Once again putting everything in context without mentioning numbers, after all, Apple does not disclose this information yet for reasons of strategy, the executive said that more Apple Watches were sold last Christmas than iPhones on their first Christmas. In other words, Apple sold more than 2.3 million Watches in the last quarter.
In a related note, Canalys believes that Apple sold about 66% of smart watches sold in 2015. They predict that Apple sold more than 12 million units, with 5 million in the last quarter alone plus pertinent information in favor of Watch, a product that many think “did not take off” and does not achieve the expected success.
iPad
There is no denying that iPad sales are at a pace of total deceleration just look at the chart below.
However, Cook hopes things will get better by the end of 2016.
Apple TV
He also spoke highly of Apple TV, saying that the last quarter was the best-selling set-top box. For him, the new Apple TV together with tvOS set the stage for a “bright future” in our living room. Would that future be a new service of streaming of Ma's videos? We'll see
Android
In order to further expand the company's business and rely less and less on a product (currently, the iPhone), Apple is willing to invest heavily in software and services.
Apple is not silly and knows that Android is a good universe to be explored. Cook confirmed this by saying that the company is using Apple Music for Android (which was recently updated) as a way to test the growth of the service division for other platforms, opening the door for more migrations like this in the future.
Apple Campus 2
Cook said that not all Apple employees will move to the new campus in late January 2017. He also emphasized the importance of the new presentation space on the future campus, which will give Apple enormous flexibility to hold larger events on their own land instead of relying on places in San Francisco or San Jose.
Employee benefits
Ma employees will now have up to four weeks paid vacation if they need to care for a sick family member. In addition, the valid maternity / paternity leave benefits in the US will be extended to other countries where the company operates. Angela Ahrendts also said that Apple is working on new solutions to retain talent across the company, something it is doing exceptionally well in stores.
Production chain
Jeff Williams also spoke briefly about Apple's production chain, saying that soon the company will achieve something very important: supply of molten metals from committed suppliers and announce that the molten metals used in various products will come from completely conflict-free areas and / or from vendors committed to Apple guidelines.
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The speech was for employees, but of course Apple knew it would leak what is still a good strategy to try to quiet investors and Wall Street as a whole.
