Apple chief promises new products
Apple sold more than $1 billion of Apple TV set-top boxes in 2013 and is investing heavily in the next generation of products, Chief Executive Tim Cook said at the company’s annual meeting on Friday. Apple’s ability to again transform the fast-moving technology arena is the central question in investors’ and Silicon Valley executives’ minds as the company’s growth slows, and rivals like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Google take chunks out of its market share. Industry executives and Apple observers continue to believe that the company will come up with some sort of wearable device, like a smartwatch, and speculation persists about a long-rumored TV product of some sort to shake up the living room viewing experience.
“We’re working on some things that are extensions of things you can see and some that you can’t see,” Cook said at the annual meeting, referring to a 32% increase in research and development costs last year. Responding to a question about innovation, Cook said Apple preferred not to talk about new products under development so as not to tip off the competition. “You can see we’re getting ripped off left, right and sideways,” he said. Apple’s shares fell 0.27% to close at $526.24 on Friday. They have clawed back substantial ground since falling below $400 in June, but remain well below the record-high $700 level of 2012, weighed by concerns about whether the company has any new hit products in the pipeline. Though Cook steered clear of that discussion, he shed some more light on the Apple TV business, which executives have long referred to as a “hobby” for a company expected to chalk up some $181 billion in sales this fiscal year. The $99 Apple TV set-top box, which streams content from Netflix and other video sources to a TV, had racked up $1 billion in sales in the past year, he said.