Tim Cook: Apple Retail is 'The Face of The Company'

At this morning's Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about a number of topics including Apple's Retail division. Cook said that the company's stores are "the face of Apple" and that Apple will continue to invest in them, including the first Apple Retail location in Turkey.

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There's no better place to discover, explore, and learn about our products than in retail. Our team members there are the most amazing, awesome, incredible people on earth. It's the best retail experience. It's a retail experience where you walk in and you instantly realize the store is not here for the purpose of selling, it's here for the purpose of serving.

And so the Genius Bar helps you not only with an issue, but it helps you get more out of your Apple products over the life of them. The store acts as a gathering place. It's a place that has an important role in the community. And so if you look at an agenda on an Apple Store for any given day, you might find that there's a youth program going on where the kids from a local elementary school are coming in the store as a part of their field trip. You might find that there's a local musician that's entertaining people in that store on that night. It's incredibly exciting what these stores do.

I'm not even sure "store" is the right word anymore. They've taken on a role much broader than that. They are the face of Apple for almost all of our customers.

Retail accounted for $6.4 billion of Apple's revenue in the holiday quarter, despite the fact that retail has been without a leader since October when John Browett departed the company.

Cook had strong praise for Apple's executive staff today, saying that the executive boardroom is filled with superstars, specifically mentioning Bob Mansfield, Jeff Williams, Phil Schiller, Dan Riccio and Craig Federighi.

Cook's feelings about the quality of his lieutenants may be part of the reason retail has been without an executive for nearly four months. He said Apple may need to spend a significant amount of time to find a new retail head that matches up to the current executive suite -- particularly after the issues Apple had with Browett's management decisions.

Apple spent some 7 months looking for a replacement for Ron Johnson and Tim Cook had high praise for Browett after he was hired, calling him "the best by far". Some seven months after his hiring, Browett was out. The new retail head will need to oversee Apple's continued aggressive international expansion, including stores in a number of new countries including Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia.

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Top Rated Comments

Mike Valmike Avatar
160 months ago
Future headline: Apple Stores Have Huge Impact in Turkey; Feathers Everywhere
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Votekinky06 Avatar
160 months ago
"The new retail head will need to oversea Apple's continued aggressive international expansion..."

Pun intended?;)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BigJayhawk Avatar
160 months ago
Why? Why? Did You Ask???

Why do you use caps for every word in the article title??
Since you asked (rather than Googling it yourself):

Title case, or up style, is another method. Whether or not you capitalize a word in a title depends on its part of speech. According to most style guides that use title case, the basic rules are as follows:

Capitalize the first and last word in a title, regardless of part of speech

Capitalize all nouns (baby, country, picture), pronouns (you, she, it), verbs (walk, think, dream), adjectives (sweet, large, perfect), adverbs (immediately, quietly), and subordinating conjunctions (as, because, although)

Lowercase “to” as part of an infinitive

Lowercase all articles (a, the), prepositions (to, at, in, with), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or)

For example:

Why It’s Never Too Late to Learn Grammar (all words capitalized except “to,” a preposition)

ANOTHER GOOD (and correct) EXAMPLE WOULD BE:

Apple Retail is the Face of the Company, Though Lacking a Leader
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tshrimp Avatar
160 months ago
"There's no better place to discover, explore, and learn about our products than in retail....."

What????

All I got from retail was incorrect information. However, the people here at Macrumors were great at responding to posts and educating me on Macs, etc. Thanks Macrumor posters for filling the gap that Apple could not fill for me.

This is also why I do not have AppleCare. 4 calls to Apple 0 resolutions, but again thanks to you guys here at Macrumors for filling in for Apple.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ryanflucas Avatar
160 months ago
Apple needs a guy to intro for Cook. Someone who walks on the stage and rallies the troops, cracks a sarcastic joke, and then hands the mic over to Cook. Someone to get on TV and be a face in commercials.

Just hire Noah Wyle already. :p
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AngerDanger Avatar
160 months ago
Our team members there are the most amazing, awesome, incredible people on earth.

He actually sounds like he's parodying himself. :D
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)