Tim Cook

1,066 'Tim Cook' stories February 2010 - October 2013

Everything you need to know about Apple's CEO

Tim Cook was appointed CEO in 2011 when Steve Jobs stepped away from the company as his health worsened. Cook was handpicked by Jobs to be his replacement, having served as a close friend of Jobs during their entire career together.

A graduate of Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering, Cook earned his Masters from Duke University’s School of business. Prior to joining Apple, Cook spent 12 years at IBM, then served as the Chief Operating Officer of Intelligent Electronics. He then had a short stint at Compaq.

Cook first joined Apple in 1998 after being recruited by Jobs. Cook remarked in a commencement address at Auburn University that, five minutes into his interview with Jobs, he knew he wanted to join Apple. “My intuition already knew that joining Apple was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for the creative genius,” he remarked.

At Apple, Cook started out as senior vice president of worldwide operating. He served as interim CEO in 2009 while Steve Jobs was on medical leave. In 2011, Cook again stepped in to lead day-to-day operations while Jobs was ill, before ultimately being named CEO permanently just before the death of Jobs.

Cook has been very outspoken on a variety of social issues, including the need to protect user data and privacy, as evident by his vocal refusal to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen. Cook has also voiced his displeasure with controversial legislation that enables LGBT discrimination in a handful of states in the United States. Likewise, Cook has frequently called on the United States Congress to pass LGBT protection legislation. He became the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2014, as well. Cook has led Apple in the San Francisco Pride Parade in recent years.

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Carl Icahn urges $150B Apple buyback in letter to Tim Cook, increases investment to $2.5B

Jordan Kahn Oct 24 2013 - 6:45 am PT

11 Comments

Following an announcement yesterday from billionaire investor Carl Icahn that he had sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and would post the full letter online today, Icahn’s new website has now officially launched with the full text of the letter. In the letter on Icahn’s new website called the Shareholders’ Square Table, the investor urged Tim Cook to implement the $150 billion buyback plan that he has been suggesting since first announcing in August that he had taken a “large position” in Apple:

The S&P 500 trades at roughly 14x forward earnings. After backing off net cash, Apple trades at just 9x (not factoring into account that the company has a significantly lower cash tax rate than the rate Wall Street analysts use). This discount (cash adjusted) becomes even more compelling given our confidence that Apple will grow earnings per share at a rate well in excess of the S&P 500 for the foreseeable future. With such an enormous valuation gap and such a massive amount of cash on the balance sheet, we find it difficult to imagine why the board would not move more aggressively to buy back stock by immediately announcing a $150 Billion tender offer (financed with debt or a mix of debt and cash on the balance sheet).

While this would certainly be unprecedented because of its size, it is actually appropriate and manageable relative to the size and financial strength of your company. Apple generates more than enough cash flow to service this amount of debt and has $147 billion of cash in the bank. As we proposed at our dinner, if the company decided to borrow the full $150 billion at a 3% interest rate to commence a tender at $525 per share, the result would be an immediate 33% boost to earnings per share, translating into a 33% increase in the value of the shares, which significantly assumes no multiple expansion.

In the letter Icahn adds that if the proposed $150 billion buyback was executed immediately, Apple would experience “further stock appreciation of 140% for the shareholders who choose not to sell into the proposed tender offer.” Icahn also agrees to not participate in the buyback by withholding his shares to “ invalidate any possible criticism” regarding the long term benefits of the proposal.

Icahn also noted that he has increased the size of his position in AAPL from 3,875,063 shares to 4,730,739 shares, a value of around $2.5 billion, and that he intends to buy more.

While there isn’t a ton of new information regarding Icahn’s new website, it is already accepting sign ups and a description on the website explains it as “a platform from which we can unite and fight for our rights as shareholders and steer towards the goal of real corporate democracy.”

Icahn says that Cook will call him after the October 28th earnings announcement.

Tim Cook will call Icahn after earnings on Oct. 28…Icahn says. $AAPL

— Cadie Thompson (@CadieThompson) October 24, 2013

Icahn’s full letter to Tim Cook is below:

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Apple announces OS X Mavericks available today for free

Jordan Kahn Oct 22 2013 - 10:25 am PT

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Update: OS X Mavericks is available now as a free download on the Mac App Store.

Apple has done something it hasn’t done before with a major release of OS X, announcing today during its iPad event that it will release OS X Mavericks, the latest version of its desktop OS, later today for free to all users.

Mavericks is available starting today for iMac and MacBook Pros from 2007 or later, 2008 MacBook Air, MacBook, and Mac Pro or later, and the 2009 Mac mini or later.

Apple first showed off Mavericks back in June at its WWDC developer conference and has since seeded several betas as well as Golden Master release followed by silent update to the GM release that could likely be the version Apple ships later this month. Despite not receiving a radical visual overhaul like iOS 7, OS X Mavericks includes over 200 new features and many big new user facing features like iBooks, improved multiple display support, iCloud Keychain, new Finder features, Maps, quick reply and lock screen notifications, auto-updating apps, and a number of under the hood enhancements to improve battery life and performance. (Full press release below)
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Tim Cook at iPad event: 64% of iOS devices on iOS 7, 20 million iTunes Radio listeners, 1 billion songs played, 1 million apps

Jordan Kahn Oct 22 2013 - 10:10 am PT

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Keeping with tradition, Tim Cook kicked off Apple’s iPad event today by giving us an update on some of the company’s core businesses and accomplishments since last checking in. Below is a roundup of the numbers and stats that Cook shared on stage today during the event including updates on the new iPhones, iOS 7 adoption, iTunes Radio, and the App Store:

iPhone & iOS 7:

– 9 million iPhones launch weekend, biggest iPhone launch ever

– iOS 7 200 million devices in five days-

-64% of devices currently running iOS 7

iTunes Radio:

– iTunes radio, 20 million listeners, 1 billion songs

App Store:

-1 million apps on App Store

-60 app billion downloads

-$13B earned by developers (up from 11 billion in July)

iPad:

-170 million iPads sold

-475k iPad apps (up from 375k in July)

Why Tim Cook appointed Angela Ahrendts head of retail – in one 4-minute video

Ben Lovejoy Oct 22 2013 - 7:07 am PT

19 Comments

Watch this four-minute video, and you’ll understand exactly why Tim Cook hired former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to head up Apple’s retail operations – and it’s not because of all the iDevices that appear in it (though the love-clutching of her iPhone doesn’t hurt).

In the video, a promo for Burberry’s partnership with Salesforce, she maps out her vision of the stores of the future, “blurring the lines between physical and digital.”

Ahrendts talks of the store of the future making you “feel like you’re walking into the website,” of mobile-first and using innovations like chip-enabled products and “magical trays” to play video content as you pick up a product. Today’s customers, she says, “speak social” and the onus is on retailers to “change everything” to deliver “the ultimate in customer service.”

Swap the clothing and accessories for technology, and it’s a video that could have been made for Apple. Apple may have gotten it horribly wrong with her predecessor, but this time it’s not hard to see why Cook described Ahrendts as “the best person in the world for this role.”

Via Fortune

Tim Cook forges closer ties to China by joining board of prestigious Beijing university

Ben Lovejoy Oct 22 2013 - 6:22 am PT

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In a move likely aimed at fostering high-level networking opportunities in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined the advisory board of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management (SEM), according to its website (via TechCrunch).

The board includes several key politicians, including Wang Qishan, the Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist party’s anti-corruption body; Chen Yuan, the Vice Chairperson of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); Ma Kai, one of China’s fourth vice premiers; and Zhou Xiaochuan, the Vice Chairman of the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC.

Tim Cook has described China as a “hyper-market” for Apple, with the iPhone 5c reportedly developed largely with developing markets like China in mind, and the gold model of the iPhone 5s designed in part to appeal to Chinese buyers.

New iWatch concept brings iOS 7 to Nike Fuel Band-style accessory

Zac Hall Oct 21 2013 - 9:57 am PT

30 Comments

(via Dribbble)

A very cool iWatch concept made by Thomas Bogner takes a very different approach to the highly anticipated and rumored wearable computer by Apple: Bogner imagines the device borrowing influence from the Nike Fuel Band with iOS 7 design language and features.

We recently ran a poll asking readers to vote on the best of various iWatch concepts, most of which look more like a traditional watch than something Apple created, but a much smarter Nike Fueld Band-style wearable computer could just what the doctor ordered.

Bogner’s iWatch concept features Siri-style voice input for apps like Mail, Messages, and Calandar, and Music control, and features integrated Nike fitness software like Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.
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Why iPhone longevity means iOS carrier activation share doesn’t resemble sales

Ben Lovejoy Oct 18 2013 - 7:20 am PT

21 Comments

There was a lot of confusion yesterday when Verizon’s results were discussed, with more than one commentator confusing activations and sales. For the record, what Verizon announced was that 51 percent of its activations were iPhone, not 51 percent of its phone sales.

If you doubt the importance of this distinction, I have one word for you: T-Mobile. As of 11th April, the carrier had two million iPhone activations. Its iPhone sales as of the same date? Zero: T-Mobile didn’t start selling iPhones until the following day.

The difference between the two numbers is particularly dramatic with high-end handsets like the iPhone …
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Apple reiterates it cannot read user iMessages, has no plans to do so

Ben Lovejoy Oct 18 2013 - 4:53 am PT

10 Comments

Update: Fresh Apple statement added

The immunity of iMessages from government surveillance has been cast into doubt by QuarksLab security researchers presenting at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur.

A leaked DEA document had pointed to the impossibility of intercepting iMessages even with a court order, a point that was confirmed by an apparently categorical Apple statement:

Conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data.

The researchers reverse-engineered the iMessage protocol and confirmed that the claim was true. However, they identified that Apple needed to hold the encryption keys on its own servers, and that simply by changing these keys, it could enable access to the message content.

They can change a key anytime they want, thus read the content of our iMessages.

The researchers were keen to stress that they do not believe Apple is doing, or has ever done, this – but rather that it could do so if the NSA or another government agency were to require it. Only messages sent after Apple changed the keys would be accessible.

Apple has since issued a statement to AllThingsD:

“iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages,” said Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said (sic) in a statement to AllThingsD. “The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so.”

This is, though, merely a weaker version of its earlier statement. Then, it said it couldn’t read iMessages, now it is saying that it could, but it would require work and it has no intention of doing so. That Apple would not willingly do so was never in doubt: the point is that the NSA could force it to. A demonstration from QuarksLab is below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbqZnTKDVU0]

When the NSA PRISM story broke, it led to a raft of denials in what some security researchers say was carefully-crafted language. Apple, among other companies, was clearly unhappy about the secrecy imposed on it and gained permission to reveal some numbers on government requests for customer data. A meeting was subsequently held at the White House in which Tim Cook and other tech CEOs met with President Obama to discuss the issue. Details of the discussions were not made public.

Wall Street Journal backs up analyst reports that Apple is reducing component orders for iPhone 5c

Benjamin Mayo Oct 16 2013 - 3:18 am PT

18 Comments

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is cutting component orders for the iPhone 5c by up to a third, reiterating the news that Apple is curtailing iPhone 5c production. This backs up a multitude of reports by industry analysts, which said that iPhone 5c demand is weaker than Apple’s initial expectations.

Apple told its Taiwanese assemblers Pegatron Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. that shipments of the iPhone 5C in the fourth quarter would be cut, the people said. Pegatron, which analysts say assembles two thirds of the iPhone 5Cs, was told orders would be cut by less than 20%, said a person familiar with the matter. Hon Hai, which assembles the remaining low-cost iPhones, was told orders would be cut by a third, said two people familiar with the matter.

In the past, Apple CEO Tim Cook has cautioned against supplier shipments analysis as an indicator of sales performance, saying that Apple sources components from multiple manufacturers. However, the sheer number of independent reports about cuts to iPhone 5c suggests there is some underlying truth to the story. On the flip side, iPhone 5s sales seem to be booming, doing better than predicted.

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Tim Cook talks hiring of Angela Ahrendts as Retail chief, says she is ‘best person in the world for this role’

Mark Gurman Oct 15 2013 - 7:36 am PT

5 Comments

Last night, Apple announced that it had finally found a new Head of Retail: Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. Ahrendts has been CEO of the fashion retailer for several years, leading the company through substantial growth in international markets. With that global growth experience and focus on high-end products, she seems like a natural fit to succeed in a role that has been so controversial over the past couple of years.

And Apple CEO Tim Cook seems to agree. The Apple chief executive took the time to keep his employees in the loop regarding the hiring process. Cook sent a company-wide memo this morning that discusses how he found Ahrendts and how she will fit into the Apple culture. While Ahrendts will be running Apple’s physical retail stores, she will also run Apple’s online stores. This is the first time in which the Retail Head’s domain covered both offline and online sales…

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Coming from Apple in 2014: 12-inch Retina MacBook, sharper iPad, cheaper iMac?

Mark Gurman Oct 12 2013 - 4:30 pm PT

38 Comments

According to typically-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple has a slew of new products in the works for 2014. The analyst has summarized his expectations for these new products in a new research note, and has also reaffirmed some of his previous claims for products in Apple’s pipeline for the rest of Fall 2013…

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Apple to hold fiscal Q4 earnings conference call on Monday, October 28th

Benjamin Mayo Oct 7 2013 - 2:56 pm PT

5 Comments

Update: Live webcast will be at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq413

Apple will hold its quarterly earnings call to announce results on October 28th, as noted on Apple’s investor website. Typically, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will read prepared statements about the company’s performance, before opening the call to a question and answer session for analysts. The call will begin at 2PM Pacific / 5PM Eastern time. Apple will publish a press release reporting their results about half an hour before the call is due to begin.

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SEC finds Apple didn’t create “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” after all

Ben Lovejoy Oct 7 2013 - 5:48 am PT

7 Comments

A four-month long investigation into Apple’s tax affairs by the Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared the company of any wrong-doing in regard to the way the company accounted for taxes in respect of its overseas operations.

A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing into Apple’s tax affairs had previously accused the company of seeking “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” over cash held overseas. The hearing proved anti-climatic, with no wrong-doing established, and the investigation handed off to the SEC. The SEC has now closed the case.

Tim Cook made an unequivocal statement during the Senate hearing that Apple used no tax gimmicks …
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Tim Cook reflects on second anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing in letter to employees

Mark Gurman Oct 4 2013 - 6:47 am PT

7 Comments

On the eve of the second anniversary of the passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reflected on the moment in a company-wide email. A source has provided a copy:

Team-

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place.I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you.

Best,

Tim

Last year, Apple honored Jobs with a tribute video on its homepage. The video is embedded above and it is a delightful look into the legacy of the man who changed the lives of so many people.

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What’s an Icahn tweet worth? About $8B in AAPL’s value …

Ben Lovejoy Oct 2 2013 - 5:57 am PT

6 Comments

Fortune ran a couple of pieces showing what happened to Apple’s stock price after investor Carl Icahn’s tweets, with his initial announcement that he had taken a “large position” in AAPL, followed by news that he’d had a “nice conversation” with Apple CEO Tim Cook – and a subsequent tweet yesterday that he’d “pushed hard for a 150 billion buyback” over a “cordial dinner.”

The total effect? A jump in Apple’s valuation totalling around $23B – or approaching a cool $8B per tweet.

Would be nice to know when he’s about to tweet, eh?

Apple hires Toronto Blue Jays assistant GM with a penchant for stats and software to manage the App Store Sports section

Mike Beasley Sep 30 2013 - 6:10 pm PT

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Apple has hired Toronto Blue Jays assistant GM Jay Sartori to manage a sports section of the App Store, according to a number of reports dating back three days (via MG Siegler). Sartori a numbers guy who can effortlessly crunch statistics according to a bio from 2011, but he also has some experience in software development. He previously created some stats software for the MLB commissioner and has a background in finance and management information systems…

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In company-wide email, Apple CEO Tim Cook applauds awe-inspiring work of employees, gives Thanksgiving week off

Jordan Kahn Sep 30 2013 - 7:03 am PT

9 Comments

Following the launch of two new iPhone models and iOS 7 earlier this month, Tim Cook today emailed Apple employees thanking them for working tirelessly on the new products and rewarding them with extra, paid time off for the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays.

I realize many of you worked tirelessly to bring us this far. I know it required great personal sacrifice…In recognition of your incredible efforts and achievements, I’m happy to announce that we’re extending the Thanksgiving holiday this year.

Cook announced that Apple will shut down on November 25, 26, and 27 so employees can have the entire week off for the holiday. Retail and AppleCare employees will continue to work on those days to serve customers, but they’ll get the additional, paid time off at a later date along with international employees.

And I am proud to tell you that Apple is also a force for good in our world beyond our products. Whether it’s improving working conditions or the environment, standing up for human rights, helping eliminate AIDS, or reinventing education, Apple is making a substantial contribution to society.

None of this would have been possible without you. Our most important resource is not our money, our intellectual property, or any capital asset. Our most important resource — our soul — is our people.

In addition to announcing the additional time off, Cook noted that he visited Apple retail stores during the launch of the iPhone, and also thanked employees for the “substantial contributions” Apple has made to charitable causes.

Cook’s full letter to employees is below:
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Full Businessweek interview with Jony Ive and Craig Federighi

Seth Weintraub Sep 25 2013 - 10:50 am PT

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Following their joint top level conversation and subsequent Interview with Tim Cook, Businessweek posts an in-depth interview with Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive and SVP Software Engineering Craig Federighi.

It gives a nice insight into the collaborative process at Apple between industrial design and software teams which have always been close but took on a new closeness to develop iOS 7 and the new iPhones. Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:

What’s Apple’s mission?

Ive: This is probably a clumsy definition, but I think we try to make tools for people that enable them to do things they couldn’t without the tool. But we want them to not have to be preoccupied with the tool.

One of the ironies is that, from a design point of view, we feel that we’ve done our job when you finally get to that point and you think, “Well, there couldn’t be a rational alternative.” It appears inevitable. It almost appears like it wasn’t designed. Then we feel like we got it right, which is sort of semi-ironic, as a design team, to not make you feel like it was designed. But that’s what we try to do.

Federighi: I would have a hard time saying it any better. I would just say that I have been profoundly influenced by Apple’s technology since I was a little boy. I think it made me and all of us smarter, enabled us to achieve things we wouldn’t have otherwise achieved, has helped us communicate with people in a more fluid way that enriches our lives, and I think all along the way we do it in ways that enhance people’s lives instead of frustrate them, instead of making them feel stupid.

I mean, honestly, how many times do you buy a piece of technology that in the end just frustrates you? It’s something you bought to enhance your life, and instead you’re fighting it. And I think we aspire to move people forward in a way that they love.

OK, I’m a technology freak, but I think probably if someone mapped my brain, you would find that there were moments when I lit up the love pattern in my neurons in association with our products. I mean, literally, there is love, and I think that is true of many of our customers. I think when we build something we love and that others love, then we have done our job.

Ive: Our products are often at those times and those places that are meaningful to us, aren’t they? They are there when we communicate. They’re there when we take photos. They’re there when we look at the photos. They’re there when we listen to music. These are sort of seminal points in our lives, aren’t they? I think we try to create objects and products that enable those and enhance those connections. But you can’t do that in a way where the object is wagging its tail in our face.

It’s a good read. Head over to BBW for the rest.

Apple’s Jony Ive and Craig Federighi talk removing skeuomorphism in iOS 7, chasing megapixels, and the future (9to5mac.com)
Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Craig Federighi talk new iPhones, iOS 7, collaboration in interview (9to5mac.com)
Dedication: Only 5 people have left Jony Ive’s team, 3 because they died (9to5mac.com)
A look at what some high-profile apps will look like when iOS 7 hits (9to5mac.com)
In full BW interview, Tim Cook talks about buying things with Fingerprints and Android duopoly (9to5mac.com)

Tim Cook probably won’t be retweeting Conan O’Brien’s Siri fail

Ben Lovejoy Sep 25 2013 - 4:47 am PT

6 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1UDKyxJJ4]

Tim Cook’s may be on Twitter now, but he’s probably not going to be retweeting a poor showing from Siri on the late night program last night.

Actress Jane Lynch’s tweeted a recent experience with Siri in which it apparently responded to her request for directions to Le Pain Quotidien with “I have no listing for Let Pam Cookie Ian.” She recounted the story in an interview on Conan, in which two further live Siri attempts also failed.

The first, Lynch’s voice on O’Brien’s phone, wasn’t really a fair test: Siri keeps personalised voice files for each user on its servers. But the second, in which O’Brien used his own phone, resulted in the infamous “I’m really sorry about this, but I can’t take any requests right now” message.

With some iPhone fails, though, you have to look more to the human factor than the phone. Sure, it’s a bit of an oops moment when Apple Maps directs local drivers onto an airport taxiway, but as with many other GPS fails, you’d kind of think drivers might notice that they were crossing a runway – or that an international airport might, you know, make sure the gate was closed or something …

Apple announces record 9 million iPhone sales over first three days, 200 million iOS 7 updates

Benjamin Mayo Sep 23 2013 - 5:31 am PT

9 Comments

Update: On Twitter, Tim Cook has tweeted, for the second time, to thank customers for the “amazing” sales.

[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/382172377569689600]

Apple has just announced first-weekend sales figures for the iPhone 5s and 5c. Sales for both phones total 9 million. In comparison, the iPhone 5 shipments topped 5 million in the same period. These numbers come in at the higher end of analyst estimates, with many predicting bearish sales similar to the iPhone 5 launch last year. As expected, Apple did not reveal the breakdown of sales between the different iPhone models.

Alongside phone sales, the company’s press release also highlights iOS 7’s successful launch. Apple has announced that 200 million devices have been updated to iOS 7 since it was released last Wednesday. This is double the rate at which iOS 6 was adopted.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook joins Twitter, waxes on visiting Apple Stores today

Jordan Kahn Sep 20 2013 - 12:14 pm PT

8 Comments

[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/381131235247923201]

Other Apple executives have been on Twitter for a while, and today CEO Tim Cook sent out his first tweet mentioning that he visited retail stores in Palo Alto for the retail launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Cook has been a member of Twitter since July, but ~~his account is not yet verified by Twitter~~. Apple marketing chief Philip Schiller retweeted Cook’s tweet earlier today proving that the account is indeed run by the Apple CEO.

Earlier today Cook, along with Apple executives Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue, made an appearance at Apple’s Palo Alto retail store in California to greet customers that queued up for the launch of the new iPhones today.

Apple Marketing SVP Phil Schiller sometimes tweets about issues related to the company. For example, back in March Schiller tweeted the words “Be safe out there” along with a link to a study showing a much higher number of security threats on Android compared to iOS.
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A look at how Apple transports new products from China to sales channels

Mark Gurman Sep 11 2013 - 9:18 am PT

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In light of Apple’s launch of two new iPhones, Bloomberg has taken an extensive look at the behind-the-scenes process of Apple’s shipments of new products from the Asia-based supply chain to sales channels such as Apple Stores.

The process starts in China, where pallets of iPhones are moved from factories in unmarked containers accompanied by a security detail. The containers are then loaded onto trucks and shipped via pre-bought airfreight space, including on old Russian military transports. The journey ends in stores where the world’s biggest technology company makes constant adjustments based on demand, said people who have worked on Apple’s logistics and asked not to be identified because the process is secret.

The process, designed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, is led by Senior VP of Operations Jeff Williams and Michael Seifert, another operations executive at Apple.

Some interesting tidbits include the process of security guards consistently following the new devices from shipment to delivery. When a product actually launches, the supply management process is said to continue as Apple studies the progress of the launch.

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Tim Cook talks collaboration in email touting new products to employees

Mark Gurman Sep 10 2013 - 4:07 pm PT

3 Comments

Following today’s announcements of final iOS 7 details, the new iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5c, Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken the time to email employees about the new products. Cook excitedly shares details about the products and expresses the hardware and software collaboration that led to today’s launch event:

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Tim Cook: Apple will sell its 700 millionth iOS device by next month

Jordan Kahn Sep 10 2013 - 10:12 am PT

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Today at Apple’s iPhone event today in Cupertino, CEO Tim Cook kicked things off with the usual company updates since last checking in. After talking briefly about its iTunes festival and its latest expansion to the Stanford, CA retail store, Cook mentioned that Apple will hit 700 million iOS devices sold by next month. That’s up 100 million devices in just a few months since Apple announced back in June that it hit the 600 million device mark.

Cook also provided some numbers on the iTunes festival noting that the event is now in its seventh year and reaches 100+ countries with live streams. He also said that around 20M people applied for tickets.

Tim Cook

Everything you need to know about Apple's CEO

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