Apple CEO Tim Cook on Microsoft Surface: ‘a car that flies and floats?’

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At Apple’s Q4 earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked his thoughts on Microsoft’s new Surface tablet PC. Cook called it “a fairly compromised, confusing product,” and he compared it to a car that flies and floats:

 “I haven’t personally played with a Surface yet… what we’re reading about it is… it’s a fairly compromised, confusing product… the toughest thing you do with a product is make hard trade offs.. we’ve really done that with the iPad.. the user experience is absolutely incredible… i suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but i don’t think it would do all of those things well.. i think when people look at the iPad over competitive offerings they are going to really want an iPad

Cook also noted that iPhone 5 is still seeing delays but supplies are getting better:

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“The demand for iPhone is extremely robust. We’re thrilled… We’re in a significant state of backlog… our production has improved significantly… I’m pleased with the current volume of output… its difficult to predict when supply/demand will balance.. but i’m confident in our ability to supply quite a few iPhones”

Cook on the PC market:

“We continue to be very confident that the tablet market will surpass the PC market… There is incredible development in ecosystem and product development in the tablet space…. it is already extremely compelling for customers to choose an iPad over a PC. Each quarter you see 80 to 90 million PCs being sold… we do think the iPad, iPad mini, and iPad 2 will all be extremely attractive offerings for people in lieu of PCs… We are very, very confident in what we have in the pipeline. We are extremely please to have launched iPad mini and can’t wait till next Friday when we begin selling the first unit”