What you need to know
- Tim Cook has said competition in tech is inherently good in a new interview.
- He discussed a multitude of issues in an interview with Australia's Financial Review.
- He also talked about privacy, back doors, and more.
Tim Cook has said competition in tech is inherently good, in a sweeping new interview that covers privacy, back doors, his morning routine, and more.
Speaking to The Australian Financial Review, Cook said he couldn't think of a case where competition was bad, and that it was, in fact, "inherently good." He continued:
"Well, I think scrutiny of large companies is fair. And I start from the premise that regulation is necessary in some areas. And so it becomes a matter of determining where it's necessary and where the focus should be . . . In our model, the user is where the power exists because it's the user who decides when they buy a phone, are they going to buy an iPhone. Are they going to buy any number of Android phones? And so it's a fiercely competitive market. And then the market inside the App Store is also fiercely competitive . . . And so there's huge competition in all areas of this."
He also said that "anywhere in the world" where Apple is under scrutiny was under his radar, and that it was "incumbent on us to tell our story and to say why we do what we do."
He also stated that any sort of regulation in tech should be justified by being great for the user, and should improve people's lives.
Cook also touted Apple's App Store, Privacy, and more. His comments on back doors are pertinent because of Apple's recent Child Safety announcement. Cook's comments, given before the announcement state:
"It's the reality. If you put back doors in a system, anybody can use a back door. And so you have to make sure the system itself is robust and durable; otherwise you can see what happens in the security world. Every day you read about a breach, or you read about a ransomware."
