But time may finally be running out for the traditional computer. Looking at the shiny new super-sized iPad Pros tucked away in a special room on the third floor of Apple’s flagship Covent Garden store, complete with detachable keyboards, split view functionality and Apple Pencil stylus, it is clear that the world’s largest company has radical plans to change the way we work.
Tim Cook
The second is music and movie consumers: the sound system and speakers are so powerful that the iPad appears to pulsate in one’s hands when one plays a video.
Tim Cook
Some consumers use the iPad mini to read in bed, he says, finding it more relaxing than using a phone and the busyness that goes with it. That won’t change, he believes. “But I think it clearly created some cannibalisation - which we knew would occur - but we don’t really spend any time worrying about that, because as long as we cannibalise [ourselves], it’s fine," Cook laughs.
Cook hints that Apple may have more plans for the health sphere, in a revelation which will intrigue Wall Street, but he doesn’t want the watch itself to become a regulated, government-licensed health product. “We don’t want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it -- maybe an app, maybe something else.”
Tim Cook, on weakening encryption
One area there is clearly of big concern to Apple, a company that has been unusually passionate in its defence of privacy, is the prospect of any legislation that could make it harder for it to encrypt consumers’ communications end to end - in a way that even it cannot read -- or that would create loopholes that could be hacked. Theresa May's Investigatory Powers Bill - the Snoopers’ Charter - wouldn’t ban encryption but would enforce a requirement on tech firms and service providers to help provide unencrypted communications to the police or spy agencies if requested through a warrant. There are fears that it could be used to demand that firms terminate end to end encryption, allowing them to read people’s communications and pass them onto the authorities. "To protect people who use any products, you have to encrypt. You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent. They can not only result in privacy breaches but also security issues. We believe very strongly in end to end encryption and no back doors," Cook warns. “We don’t think people want us to read their messages. We don’t feel we have the right to read their emails.”
“Any backdoor is a backdoor for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a backdoor can have very dire consequences.” The Apple boss doesn’t believe that it is possible or sensible for a country to go it alone; technology and systems have become too globalised. “We are all connected, whether we like it or not”. It would also be wrong to pick on a few big players, he says. “It’s not the case that encryption is a rare thing that only two or three rich companies own and you can regulate them in some way. Encryption is widely available. It may make someone feel good for a moment but it’s not really of benefit. If you halt or weaken encryption, the people that you hurt are not the folks that want to do bad things. It’s the good people. The other people know where to go.”
Data and identity theft has a very real human cost, he argues. By jeopardising “people’s financial security, it can affect their psychology and health.” Worse, cybercriminals and cyberterrorists could hack into the IT systems that control our infrastructure and transport systems, with potentially devastating effects, “including our trains.” He is confident that May and the government will do the right thing. “I’m optimistic. When the public gets engaged, the press gets engaged deeply, it will become clear to people what needs to occur. You can't weaken cryptography. You need to strengthen it. You need to stay ahead of the folks that want to break it.” On that note, Cook is off; but in Britain the battle between libertarians and authoritarians has only just commenced.