NEW YORK — Apple chief executive Tim Cook has long been seen as the humorless and unemotional guy running the show from behind the scenes. But he is beginning to reveal a more assertive and eloquent side, hinting that he’s learning to shoulder more of Steve Jobs’ role as a frontman and leader.
In a conference call with journalists and financial analysts Tuesday, Cook showed some fire when talking about competitors, echoing the combative Jobs. He also spouted a vivid metaphor that spread over Twitter before the call was over.
Most Apple-watchers have sized up Cook as a competent caretaker of the machine that Apple founder and late CEO Jobs created, but if Cook has latent charisma that can be thawed out further, he may turn into the kind of leader some people think is essential for the company.
Even while Jobs was alive, Cook handled appearances in front of Wall Street analysts. He spoke precisely and calmly, and his language wasn’t very quotable. At a Goldman Sachs investors meeting in February, for instance, he said, “Our high order bit is we want to please customers.”
But on Tuesday, when asked if PCs and tablets might someday blend into one device, as rival PC manufacturers hope, Cook extemporized this response:
“I think anything can be forced to converge. The problem is that products are about tradeoffs, and you begin to make tradeoffs to the point where what you have left at the end of the day doesn’t please anyone. You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.”
The “toaster/fridge combo” phrase zoomed around Twitter, and within minutes, someone created a “FridgeToaster” account that started talking back at Cook.
Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw tweeted that Windows 8, the new software that’s supposed to bridge tablets and PCs, is “not a toaster/fridge. It’s a toaster/oven. Those seem pretty popular. Just saying.”
Cook’s attack was reminiscent of an appearance by Jobs on a conference call in October 2010, in which he lambasted the idea of tablets smaller than the iPad. Competitor Samsung Electronics was set to launch a small tablet, in the first real challenge to the iPad. Jobs said 7-inch screens were so small that owners would need to file down their fingers with sandpaper to hit buttons accurately.
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