Apple CEO: "If We Don't Cannibalize, Someone Else Will"

As Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference this week, a question of "cannibalization" came up, prompting the Apple CEO to speak about the first time he'd ever been asked such a question. Believe it or not, it wasn't when the iPad mini was introduced – it wasn't even when the iPhone or the iPod nano was introduced. In fact it was back when the iBook was revealed back in 1999.

The question asked of Tim Cook was about market share – about what the trade-off is for working to keep a product like the iPad the hero of the market. Cook made it clear – Apple is here to win. Cook noted that "the truth is the first time I got asked about cannibalization was when Apple came out with the iBook. Portables went on to be three quarters or more percentage of the Mac and Mac did an all-time record last year." Cook made clear that information like the analysis reported last month that the iPad was 1 out of every 6 PCs sold in the fourth quarter of 2012 is particularly striking.

Cook continued, speaking about the iPad: "If you look at when we came out with iPad, what did people worry about: they worried, oh my god you're going to kill the Mac. The cannibalization question raises its head a lot. The truth is, we really don't think about it that much. Our basic belief is, if we don't cannibalize, someone else will." Continuing to speak on the market working with PCs and computing power in general, Cook spoke: "In the case of iPad particularly, I would argue that the Windows PC market is huge and there's a lot more there to cannibalize then there is of Mac, or of iPad."

Note also that the iPad mini has been projected to both cannibalize AND drive iPad sales through 2013 – doesn't seem possible, does it?

Then came the big hit – a gouge at future companies looking to swallow up the industry by following alone: "I think if a company ever begins to use cannibalization as a primary or even a major factor of what products to go to, it's the beginning of the end." Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on what Tim Cook spoke about at the conference and be sure to hit up our massive Apple portal for more iPhone, iPad, and Mac than you can handle!