Tim Cook Talks About Not Trying To Be Steve Jobs, And More

The problem with taking over a company from a previous leader who has taken the organization to extreme success is that you’ll always be compared to that past leader. That’s even more amplified if the leader a CEO is replacing has become legendary. That is why Tim Cook has had a seemingly insurmountable task of taking over Apple since Steve Jobs passed away.

However, Cook has revealed that he is not trying to be Steve Jobs. Cook opened the All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes in California recently. During the talk he gave, he stressed that he has done different things, atypical of what Steve Jobs has done in the past. Among these, he says, is that he has expanded Apple’s humanitarian efforts. Steve Jobs was noted for not overtly giving much to charities.

Furthermore, Cook said that he has also stepped up scrutiny done by Apple of the manufacturing process their contract manufacturers do in China.

Nonetheless, Cook said that he is sticking to what works for Apple like keeping product development and product launches as stealth as possible.

Speaking of products, during the talk Cook gave at the conference, has also talked about iTV. “This is an area of intense interest for us,” the Apple CEO said. “We’re going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.” Apple has famously said that iTV is just a hobby but the rumor mill has been ripe with speculation that the Cupertino, California-based company will release an Apple TV.

Cook also mentioned Siri saying that the iPhone 4S feature has “more that it can do.” He said “We have a lot of people working on this. You’ll be really pleased with the things you’ll see over the coming months. The breadth that you’re talking about… we’ve got some cool ideas about what Siri can do. We have a lot going on this.”

Another main point Cook made was that he thinks that the system which oversees standards-essential patents is not working. He said that patent disputes against rivals like Samsung and HTC are pains in the ass.

Cook has been doing a swell job at running Apple as it still is very stable and still is raking in a lot of money. Give the CEO a break though as Steve Jobs himself groomed Cook and chose him to be his successor in running the company.

Source: AllThingsD

Images 1 & 2 from Andrew* & Saša S on Flickr

[cb]Apple[/cb]