Tim Cook at WSJ.D Conference: 1 million activations in the first 72 Hours of Apple Pay launch, Why the iPod Classic was discontinued and more

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 28 Oct 2014

tim_cook_WSJ

At the inaugural conference of Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live Conference, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook took the stage to talk about Apple Pay, iPods, iPhone and more. 

On the iPhone, Cook said that the smartphones will continue to make up for the majority of the company’s revenue for the next 5 year. For the iPad, Cook said that he has never seen a product being adopted to a variety of different businesses in such a short time.

Cook also talked about Apple Pay in his interview and revealed some really impressive numbers about it. He said that while Apple Pay is in “a skirmish” because of retailers like Rite Aid and CVS pulling out, the “early ramp looks fantastic.” He also revealed that Apple saw more than 1 million activations in Apple Pay within 72 hours of iOS 8.1 being released. He said that Visa told him that users have already activated more credit cards in Apple Pay than in any other contactless payment system combined.

“The first design point of Apple Pay was that it must be EASIER to use than the credit card. It’s the first and only mobile payment system that’s easy, private and secure” — Tim Cook.

Cook also revealed that he will be talking to AliBaba executives later this week for a possible tie-up of AliPay and Apple Pay.

As for the Macs, Cook said that the growth displayed by it in the last quarter was “remarkable” even though most analysts stated that the PC industry is slowing down. He also said that “Mac has a great future” and that the company’s 18$ billion in service revenue is ignored by most people.

On the Apple Watch, Cook said that the “watch is profound” and that the company is making sure that its not “geeky,” and that it “looks really cool.” Regarding its battery life, Cook said “We think people are going to use it so much you will end up charging it daily.”

This is what Cook had to say about rumors of the company working on a TV:

“What we’ll do I don’t want to be so clear on. But it’s an area of a lot of interest. And I’m optimistic … that there can be something great done in the space.”

Answering a question about the iPod Classic, Cook said that the company had to remove it from sale because some of the parts needed to manufacture the device were no longer available, and because of the low user demand, the cost of engineering a new version without those parts was not worth it. So, if you were waiting for the iPod Classic to return in a new form, time to look elsewhere.

When questioned about a low-cost iPhone for emerging markets like Africa, Cook said that ““We’ll go as low as we can while maintaining the customer experience.”

Update (November 10):

Wall Street Journal has posted the full 30-minute video of Tim Cook’s interview at the WSJ.D Conference:

[Via WSJ]