“It’s hard to imagine life without Apple because my life has been wrapped up in this company… since 1998.” WIRED Reporter at Large’s Steven Levy sits down with Apple CEO Tim Cook for The Big Conversation, revisiting his early years with the company, discussing where Apple is and where he hopes to take it from here. Director: Efrat Kashai Director of Photography: Matthew Caton Editor: Katie Wolford Host: Steven Levy Host: Tim Cook Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Camera Operator: Joe Barnett Assistant Camera: Travis Switzer Sound Mixer: Ian Van Keuren Production Assistant: Nathan Paul Sandoval Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Managing Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Video Transcript
– It’s hard to imagine life without Apple, because my life has been wrapped up in this company, as you said, since 1998.
This is a long time.
That’s the majority of my adult life, and that’s why I love it.
– I’m Steven Levy.
Today we sat down with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the company’s past, present, and future.
This is “The Big Interview.”
Thanks for doing “The Big Interview,” Tim.
– Thanks for being here, Steven.
It’s always nice to talk to you.
– Yes, it’s great to be at Apple Park.
I’m looking back here.
I remember that you visited me in this place.
– Yes.
– People before entering.
And what about this place, working here, and having your people here is unexpected or surprising.
– Promoted collaboration more than I thought.
And that was an important part of the design, as you know.
But there are so many places here that you suddenly meet people.
You do it at a restaurant, you do it at a coffee bar, you do it outside when crossing the street.
And I think it fosters this informal connection.
And I think that’s amazing.
Also, there’s a link here to Steve.
You know, we actually have a theater named after him, and think of him all the time.
But I can hear him in some places here.
He was of the opinion that the place where you worked was important to the job, and I think he was proved right.
– You talked about the theater.
Are you going to make products now?
Do you do pre-tapes, or will you ever see a live release in the Steve Jobs theater again like we used to?
– Maybe.
The thing we learned during COVID was, you know, the audience is mostly an online audience.
Few people can fit in the theater, and we wanted more people to make the announcements.
And you can do it more effectively on tape than you can live, because of the changes that are happening on stage and so on.
– But you don’t miss the vibe.
– I miss it.
I miss it.
I get it when WWDC is here, and we announced the film and we hear love from the developers which is exciting.
– I heard something interesting recently that Stevie Wonder had a Vision Pro demo and loved it.
How is the job?
– He is a friend of Apple.
It’s great to get feedback from Stevie, and of course his skills are second to none.
He is very good.
But availability has always been important to us from the creation of all our products, as you know, that is one of the common threads through Apple over time, is that we are not concerned with availability at the end of the production process, embedded in it. design process.
And so getting that answer was important.
– So I want to look back a little through your time here.
You’ve been here a long time.
You arrived here in 1998.
– That’s right.
– There were already times for Apple.
It was time for the Apple II.
The Mac, during the diaspora where Steve had gone.
You were compact.
Did you think that at any time you saw what was happening that Apple was not doing it?
– You know, I probably thought that before I talked to Steve.
At that time, if you remember Michael Dell had said that if he was the CEO, he would shut down Apple.
And simply return any assets left to shareholders.
And Michael just said what everyone else was thinking.
But I have to say, when I went out to talk to Steve about working at Apple, it felt alive and different.
He was one of the most unusual CEOs I have ever met.
He was passionate about the product, passionate about Apple, passionate about the cause of its mission.
And I thought, I have to do this.
I want to do this.
And since then, I never thought that Apple would go out of business.
And some people said, and some people told me, why are you doing this?
You are leaving the world’s largest computer company and moving to one that may not survive.
But I didn’t feel that way at the time after I talked to Steve.
– So you’re still here in your relationship with Steve, you know, Apple came out with him, you know.
These great creative products, the iMac, then the iPod era, that was very exciting.
– That’s right.
– There were many different versions of iPods, then of course the iPhone.
– Yes.
– Looking back, what was the smartest thing you did that you didn’t think would be so powerful in making the product successful?
– Well, I think every product you named has its place in history.
The iMac woke up Apple, it seemed to prove that Apple could survive.
The iPod gives people 1,000 songs in a pocket, something unexpected, and solves the pain that we all had with music.
It began to introduce people to more people, especially in developed markets.
And the decision to go to Windows showed that Apple could come out with a product that was bigger than the Mac environment.
And then the iPhone built on everything that came before it.
And with great work from the technology team on multi-touch, it gave you a completely different way to interact with the product.
And now what the iPhone did looking back, was to introduce people to Apple in emerging markets.
Going out and creating all these shipping relationships was important to bring Apple more and kind of turn the industry on its side and have a design.
Because at that time, if you remember, the carrier owned the design of the phone, it was to direct it.
And we said, no no, what we bring is product innovation.
And what they brought is a network expert.
And we didn’t have the integration skills and frankly they didn’t have the product skills.
And so this combination was strong.
And the rest is history.
– Well, we are starting maybe a new era of history now with AI.
Apple Intelligence.
– I mean, do you think this is something that is going to end up restoring the company and restoring the country?
Are you over it?
– I do.
I think deeply.
I think like multi-touch enables iPhone and eventually iPad, and today’s smartphone, and today’s tablet, AI will restore and give a new era and a new chapter for iPhone and iPad, and Mac, and all our products. over time.
Because I think it changes the way you experience products.
I get a lot from Apple Intelligence, and we’re just getting started.
– So Siri is something that is being revived here.
I am thinking, we will end up having this relationship with Siri who will be our constant companion and we will do, for example, everything we want to do in search, instead of going to Google, we will just ask. It’s not.
– We’ll see.
But I think, I use Siri a lot now.
I’m a Siri power user, and so I’m one of the 5 billion requests that Siri gets every day.
So I already have a relationship with Siri, but I think a lot of people will, because Siri is going to be very personal and able to take work off your plate that you don’t have to do.
And it’s kind of a multi-step kind of process that you’ve seen other demos do.
So I couldn’t be more excited about the future of Siri.
– You are the CEO.
You’ve been here a long time.
How long do you see yourself continuing this work?
– Oh, I don’t know.
I get asked that question more than I used to.
– Why is that?
When I get old, when my hair turns gray, I love this place, Steven.
I love it.
And I love the people I work with.
It is the privilege of a lifetime to be here.
And I will do it until the voice in my head says it’s time.
And then I’ll go and see what the next chapter looks like.
My life has been wrapped up in this company, as you said, since 1998.
This is a long time.
That’s most of my adult life.
And so it’s hard to imagine life without Apple.
– So one more question.
When we were all talking about tours and things like that, I was also doing a story about Infinite Loop, Another Infinite Loop.
It was the former headquarters of Apple.
– That’s right.
– And you told me you didn’t go into Steve’s office.
– Don’t have.
– After he died, it was preserved.
– Yes.
– And that sometimes you would go in there.
– [Tim] Yes.
– And to be inspired by being in the surroundings.
– [Tim] Yes.
– Are you still doing that?
Is that office still protected?
– I’m still doing that.
The office is still protected.
No one has ever moved there.
And it has been since 2011 as you know.
Most of what we do is looking ahead.
But I want my connection back to Steve, and I want the company’s connection back to Steve, because from him comes our personality and our DNA.
So I think that collaboration is important.
– So Tim, thank you so much for doing “The Big Interview.”
– Yes, thank you.
It’s a real pleasure to spend time with you.
– As usual.
– I’ll fall for you in Palo Alto again.
– Alright.
Yes, in a few days.
– In a few days.
– It is good.
Thank you.
– Alright.
[uplifting music]