Interviews

Tim Cook, Apple’s COO spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium this week. In it, he was asked about Apple’s expectations of iPhone sales, the public’s questioning of the heavy price tag, and about the innovations.

Mr. Cook responded with, “Step back and look at the [iPhone] and think of what it is. A very small, thin, lightweight device. A revolutionary cellphone. It has visual voicemail. It’s the best iPod Apple’s ever done and it’s a really cool internet device that has desktop class email/browsing/maps and searching. All in one product.”

What he is saying in a nutshell is: “You’ll see.”

What you should take this as meaning is: “Listen people, trust us. We’re Apple. You guys were haters when the iPod came out and now look at you. Let’s talk in a year and you’ll see.”

[Via MacRumors]

So the news coming out of Australia is a senuior executive of Telstra, Australia’s leading telecom company slammed the iPhone and all the hype that goes along with it. Greg Winn, Telstra’s COO was quoted as saying, “There’s an old saying - stick to your knitting - and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting.”

Later he added that the hub bub over the touch screen on the iPhone is foolish because that technology was bound to appear on mobile phone eventually anyway. What I find most interesting about this last comment is that even though the touch screen technology may have arrived eventually, the point is, Apple announced it first.

According to this article on Tech.Blorge it is probably a safe bet, Telstra will not be carrying the iPhone.

[Via Tech.Blorge]

Bill Gates likes to avoid questions about Apple products. Following an interview on CNN where the host ambushed Gates with a question about Vista resembling Mac OSX, he successfully avoided questions about the iPhone.

In an interview with Business Week, Gates was asked, “I know you could afford the price, but do you think it’s a little steep?” in which Mr. Jobs answered the question head on with the following pearl of wisdom: “Well, the marketplace will do a good job of judging that, and they can always change the price.”

[Via Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog]

I guess Verizon subscribes to the notion that if you keep on telling a lie, it becomes fact. That’s the only possible explanation that I can come up with for the recent quote by Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl in which he said, “The iPhone product is something we are happy we aren’t the first to market with.”

Even if the iPhone is moderately successful, there is no reason why passing on the iPhone should be a “happy” moment for Verizon. Mr. Strigl can say it all that he wants, and despite the demands that Verizon and Apple reportedly disagreed on, he must be kicking himself.

[Via Gizmodo]

Here is a video from CNBC’s interview with Steve Jobs. In it, he claims the iPhone will reinvent the phone industry (presumably the same way the iPod revolutionized the portable music market). He also talks about why Apple got into the phone industry and it isn’t because all the Mac Faithful have been asking for one for years.

This reminds me of how, a year ago, when asked whether Apple was going to ever do a phone, Steve Jobs said, “Get a Treo”. Boy, how times have changed.

John Mayer, singer, songwriter, rumored boy toy to Jessica Simpson, is also a FOS (friend of Steve) and a frequent Mac World Keynote guest. In this blog entry, he talks about Apple, and the iPhone.

“I wasn’t just trying to be funny at MacWorld when I said that Steve Jobs and Apple Inc, make life more fun and that it’s kind of the opposite of terrorism… The iPhone’s introduction brought people together in a unified state of “I want that!” that was actually pretty damn cozy, don’t you think?”

You just know, John isn’t all about just show. He clearly knows his stuff as he also added, “(Oh, you know the box is gonna be sexy.)”