Apple CEO Tim Cook just spoke to The Wall Street Journal and revealed that Apple will launch new categories of products and is already hard at work on the devices.
When Apple introduced the original iPod, it wasn't the first company to enter the mp3 player business. Companies such as Creative and Archos were the two biggest players prior to Apple's arrival. What Apple had successfully done was bring a sleek design and a more enjoyable user experience when interacting with your player. Apple also arrived to the smartphone world well after Samsung, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Motorola were the big players, but just as the company figured out a way to make listening to music more enjoyable, it managed to do the same with the smartphone. The iPhone would bring with it a new way of interacting with a smartphone and the iPad brought a new user experience to computing. The world is now wondering whether Apple can really deliver another breakout device and we'll soon know the answer.
Apple CEO Tim Cook just spoke to The Wall Street Journal after Apple announced that it had repurchased $14 billion of its own stock as a signal to shareholders and the public that Apple is betting on its future products. The CEO also revealed that Apple will launch new products in new categories and the company is working on "really great stuff". When asked about what those products would be, he replied that any "reasonable" person would consider Apple's upcoming products to be in new categories.
We have some pretty good ideas on what some of those products could be. At last year's AllThingsD conference, Tim Cook talked about Apple's interest in the wearable computing category and gave a strong hint that the company was working on its long-rumored iWatch smartwatch. Cook noted that Nike had done a great job with the Fuelband and showed the audience he was wearing one. He then said something that sounded like something Steve Jobs wrote, highlighting how important user experience is to Apple, more so than the device.
"To convince people that they have to wear something, it has to be incredible," Cook said at the time.
The latest reports claim that Apple will likely launch the iWatch alongside the iPhone 6 and iOS 8 later this year. The company is also rumored to be working on an iPhone with a phablet-sized display to take on the growing phablet market and its long-rumored entry into the television market. A larger iPad is also rumored, but nothing is confirmed so far.
