Apple's Tim Cook, Jony Ive and Craig Federighi Talk Criticisms and iPhones in New Interview

The trio opens ups.

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Complex Original

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“New? New is easy. Right is hard.”

That's what Apple software head Craig Federighi wants you to know in response to criticism the company has been receiving as of late. Federighi, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and head of design, Jony Ive, all sat down for an extensive interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that went live today, on the eve of the new iPhones release. The trio talked about the iPhone 5C and 5S, Microsoft's purchase of Nokia, and the constant criticism that Apple has lost its innovation. 

With iOS 7 and the new generation of its smartphones, the men say Apple stuck to their philosophy that it's better to make a polished, good product, instead of going along with trends—hence you don't see 5-inch screen iPhones running around right now (Apple instead chose to release iPads to satisfy those consumers.) Ive put an exclamation on this by saying that each feature of iOS 7 was carefully chosen and came after long, careful decisions, the same with the process that went into crafting the iPhone 5C and 5S. “We didn’t start opportunistically with 10 bits of technology that we could try to find a use for to add to our features list,” Ive said

Also, the iPhone 5C was supposed to be the cheap iPhone, right? No, says Cook. That was never the intention: it was, all along, supposed to be a colorful version of the iPhone 5. The cheap iPhone was all brought on by rumors.

Cook spoke openly about their other rival, Microsoft, and their buyout of Nokia, which shook up the smartphone world. Nokia was once the standard for mobile phones, and when Apple first launched the iPhone, Nokia was the company to beat. Now, with Microsoft's acquisition of the company, Cook believes Nokia is a prime example of what not to do as a phone company. “I think [Nokia] is a reminder to everyone in business that you have to keep innovating and that to not innovate is to die," Cook said. 

“Everybody is trying to adopt Apple’s strategy,” he continued. “We’re not looking for external validation of our strategy, but I think it does suggest that there’s a lot of copying, kind of, on the strategy and that people have recognized that importance.”

After the iPhone 5S and 5C announcement, Apple's shares took a tumble, as confidence in the company fell and people called out Apple for losing its innovative touch, partly brought on with the hopes that Apple was releasing that cheap, or bigger screened, iPhone. "You have to bring yourself back to, ‘Are you doing the right things?’" says Cook.  "And so that’s what I focus on, instead of letting somebody else or a thing like the market define how I should feel.”

Check out the entire interview here.

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