Page 3 Profile: Tim Cook, Apple CEO

Apple CEO Tim Cook (Reuters)

Four-eyed nerd?

Ghandi, John Lennon and Dame Edna can’t be wrong and they relied on bifocals. But, in a sideswipe at Google, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple and an ametropic himself - google it, it means poor sighted - has said he can’t see the Google Glasses taking off. “I wear glasses because I have to,” he said this week. “I don’t know a lot of people that wear them that don’t have to.”

But glasses are cool now…

He does seem to be overlooking something here: Tinie Tempah, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry all don superfluous specs. But Cook is an typical geek. After taking a degree in industrial engineering and an MBA, he worked at a string of computer companies, including IBM and Compaq. He joined Apple in 1998 and became CEO after Steve Jobs’s death in 2011.

A tough act to follow.

Indeed. Questions over his management style have amounted to a “whispering campaign”, some say, but he has largely silenced critics with the successful launch of the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. He’s also put a nice shine on Apple, pledging to match employees’ charitable donations and weeding out executive troublemakers.

So he’s doing all right?

He’s adamant that Apple has life in it yet, despite some naysayers. While drawing a question mark over Google Glasses before they’re fully launched, he hinted Apple may have something up its sleeve when it comes to wearable technology: a watch! And when it comes to the company’s future, he’s pretty clear-sighted: “Our north star is always on making the best products. The best phone, the best tablet, the best PC, the best MP3 player”. Rolex, be afraid.

Looks like they’re expanding into new fields?

As Cook says: “winning has never been about making the most”. He adds: “Arguably we make the best PC; we don’t make the most. We make the best music player; we wound up making the most. We make the best tablet; we make the most. We make the best phone; we don’t make the most phones.”