Apple CEO Tim Cook will now realize that words can come back to haunt him. Microsoft Chief Satya Nadella has taken some of Cook’s words and lightly wafted them right back at him, according to CNET. Nadella mused on the growing success of the Surface tablet in an interview with the Australian Financial Review.
Nadella takes a jab at Apple
Nadella painted it as example of Microsoft’s risk-taking ability. Also the CEO contrasted this attitude with that of his rivals. He said that the two-in-one idea was questioned as a form factor three years ago.
“And now guess what, even our competition has decided that it’s not a refrigerator and a toaster, but it’s actually a two-in-one.”
Nadella was a little wrong, as it was not three years ago, but four years ago, says CNET. On a 2012 earnings call, Cook contemplated hybrid computers, saying that converging two divergent products had too many trade-offs.
“You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going be pleasing to the user,” the Apple CEO said.
In the August release of the iPad Pro, the Cupertino-based firm claimed that it was a computer. This confused a lot of customers, as the tech giant always insisted that the iPad Pro was a tablet. Microsoft had something to laugh about at the time.
Nadella told the Financial Review that one has to make space for failures. Everything will not work, and one has to take the jokes for a while until they are suddenly imitated.
Apple disbanding router team
In other Apple news, citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that Apple is moving engineers off the development of wireless routers. This came weeks after the search giant Google debuted a new Wi-Fi device. In October, the ad giant revealed Google WiFi. This device promises parental controls and faster wireless service. It is slated to ship in December.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that over the past year, Apple had slowly closed the team behind its three AirPort routers. According to Bloomberg, several features of the devices were compatible only with Apple products that may have kept users from switching to PCs or Android devices. Bloomberg reported that routers were a small portion of Apple sales, as lower-priced rivals such as Netgear concentrated mostly on keeping up with changing wireless standards.
On Monday, Apple shares closed up 1.52% at $111.73. Year to date, the stock is up more than 6%, while in the last six months, it is up more than 17%.
