Cook: Tablets Shouldn’t Be Burdened by PC Legacy (Video)
Apple has dominated the tablet market since it first debuted the iPad, fending off all attempts to unseat it. Soon the company will face a new rival: Microsoft.
But Redmond is taking a very different approach to the market than Apple — putting a single operating system on tablets and PCs, and new devices that combine the two. Does that worry Apple CEO Tim Cook?
Not at all.
In an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at our D10 conference, Cook said it’s unwise to burden the tablet with the legacy of the PC.
“In my view, the tablet and the PC are different,” he said. “You can do things with the tablet if you are not encumbered by the legacy of the PC. … Products are about trade-offs, and you have to make tough decisions. You have to choose. And if you don’t, you wind up not building the best product.”
Tablets and notebooks are two different devices and splicing them together into some Moreauian chimera does a disservice to both.
Said Cook, “I think if you force the tablet and the PC together, the PC is not as good as it can be and the tablet is not as good as it can be. You’re not going to end up with a kick-ass product.”