Tim Cook at Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference

Posted by connectech On February 12, 2015

At the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Tim Cook was one of the guests of honor where he discussed a range of topics including the Apple Watch's role in life, Apple Pay's growth, and the symbiotic partnership with enterprise giant IBM.

Apple Watch

Cook compared today's smartwatch market with the state of the music player market when the iPod debuted. Apple wasn't the first to develop an MP3 player but can you remember the names of any of the devices on the market other than the iPod? Cook points out that the Apple Watch will have similar success. He mentioned that he uses Siri on his Apple Watch 'constantly,' and that it reminds him on a regular basis to keep moving if he sits for more than fifty minutes with a 'tap.' At Apple meetings, after fifty minutes, attenders are 'tapped' and 'everybody stands up' which brings health benefits. Apple may even have the first glucose monitor [1] along with a host of other health monitors [2]. With the release of the Apple Watch in April, we will monitor its success.

Apple Pay

Cook said he was surprised at the number of businesses who have now accepted Apple Pay and the numbers were 'much faster' than he anticipated. "We have 2000 banks and credit unions lined up, with more coming. So the retailers are the emphasis," Cook said. He reiterated Apple's policy that the customer's privacy is paramount and that Apple should not know what a customer buys, how much a customer bought or where it is bought. Our recent update on Apple Pay is encouraging and there are very few complaints lodged. Apple announced this new payment service last year. [3] Apple Pay has over taken Google Wallet and is way ahead of CurrentC which has still not entered the arena of pay services. [4]

Continuity

Cook emphasized that Apple is in the unique position of bringing continuity or syncing of mobile devices with computers due to having the Mac OS and iOS under one company. No other company has this ability with its devices. As Apple moves further into Enterprise, this will be especially unique for companies who want what consumers are already experiencing, such as, answering a phone call on a computer or tablet or working on the same document seamlessly on a mobile device as what is on the desktop. Apple calls this Continuity. [5]

Apple's Enterprise Sales Agreement with IBM

Cook discussed Apple's partnership with IBM and said the two companies were "complimentary" with IBM having expertise in multiple verticals as well as a large field staff, while Apple has consumer products and operating systems. Cook put it this way, "IBM has very deep knowledge of a number of verticals, we don't have that. IBM has field expertise, we don't have that. Apple has devices people want, programming languages easy to write for. IBM doesn't have that. We want to change the way people work." The apps that have been brought to the fore for enterprise is impressive. As Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research puts it, ""They've gone further than I thought they were going to go by this point. The apps appear to be higher-quality versions of what IBM was already building." [7]

Apple Worth 700 Billion Dollars

Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs Group, after reporting the worth of Apple and its recent fourth quarter profit of $18 Billion said to Tim Cook on stage, "So far, Apple seems fairly undeterred by the law of large numbers." Tim Cook said replied:

"We don't believe in such laws as laws of large numbers. This is sort of, uh, old dogma, I think, that was cooked up by somebody and Steve [Jobs] did a lot of things for us for many years, but one of the things he ingrained in us [is] that putting limits on your thinking [is] never good." [9]

This caused quite a stir in the media, but Business Insider wrote, "It's likely that Cook was objecting to the beliefs of many critics that large, mature companies like Apple can't sustain high growth rates and surging stock prices. However, the law of large numbers has nothing to do with large companies, large revenues, or large growth rates." [10]

You can read a complete detailed report of Tim Cook's speech at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference at MacRumors. [11]

Notes

[1] The Apple Watch May Have Its First Medical App—A Glucose Monitor For Diabetics, readwrite, BRIAN P. RUBIN FEB 10, 2015

[2] Apple Watch will measure heart rate and is comprehensive health tracker, iMedicalApps, Iltifat Husain, MD | September 9, 2014

[3] Apple Pay

[4] CurrentC vs Apple Pay

[5] Continuity

[6] Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership to Transform Enterprise Mobility, Apple

[7] Apple-IBM partnership off to 'impressive' start, ComputerWorld, Greg Keizer, Dec 15, 2014

[8] Apple Valuation Tops $700B: Why Is Confidence So High?, Bloomberg Business