Apple’s Cook Talks Jobs, Products at D10

Apple CEO Tim Cook remained true to the company's culture of secrecy yesterday in an interview at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital D10 conference.

"Never have I seen the things I can't talk about today," Cook said, according to a transcript provided by MacRumors. "The juices are flowing. We have some incredible things coming out."

The comments come ahead of Apple's upcoming World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), where the company typically unveils an update to its mobile operating system while new hardware introductions are also a possibility.

When asked by the Journal's Walt Mossberg what’s coming at the conference, Cook remained true to form. “That's a great question, but I'm not going to answer it,” he said.

Cook commented on a number of different Apple products. Specifically, he said that the iPad is still in the “first inning,” a particularly mysterious comment given recent rumors that the company is thinking about a smaller iPad, possibly in the 7.5-inch size range.

Cook said that he’s been laughed at by many for saying in the past that he believed the tablet market would eventually exceed the PC market. “I bet there's a lot of people in this audience that use their iPad a lot more than they use their computer,” Cook said. “And I love my Mac. But I find myself spending more and more time on my iPad.”

On the AppleTV, a product that many are saying Apple has plans to expand upon in ways that will revolutionize the way people view television in the same way the iPod revamped the music industry, Cook echoed former Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ comment on the product, saying it’s a work in progress.

“I love the product. But I think Apple TV is more something that you keep pulling the string to see where it goes,” he said.

While Cook might have been guarded about Apple’s future products, his talk was an interesting glimpse of a CEO who is beginning to shape his own place beneath the long shadow of his predecessor. Just this past week, Cook turned down $75 million in dividends owed to him, at a time when even CEOs who have left companies in shambles exit with huge gold parachutes.

Cook credited Jobs as a “genius” and “visionary,” saying he “was an original and there isn't another one of those being made.” And while Jobs was undoubtedly the lifeblood at Apple, Cook maintains that he left behind a supporting cast that will carry on his legacy, noting that no one person could do what Apple has done.

“You could have an ‘S’ on your chest and a cape and you couldn't do it all,” Cook said. “[Jobs] brought great people to the company and set a standard for who they brought in. That built an incredible company… I wouldn't get overly focused on who does what piece. The company doing all the things we're doing, there are a lot of key people.”

So what do we know about Apple that we didn’t know before Cook took the stage at D10? Not a lot, but there are a couple of things that hadn’t previously been officially confirmed. For instance, the ‘S’ in the iPhone 4S stands for ‘Siri,’ while the ‘S’ in the iPhone 3GS stands for ‘Speed.’

The world undoubtedly will find out more from Apple on June 11, when Cook takes the stage with some of those “incredible things” he can’t talk about.