-Hey everyone, I'm Kara Tsuboi.
Thanks for watching The Future Of, a show where we spotlight a major company and find out some of the things that could happen in the next year.
Right now, we're talking about Apple and who better to discuss Apple with us than staff editor, Josh Lowensohn, who covers Apple.
Thanks for joining us, Josh.
-My pleasure.
-Let's talk first about perhaps some new products that we may see in 2013.
What do you think?
-Sure.
I mean as a consumer company, the first thing everybody thinks of is
things like the iPhone and iPad.
-Right.
-But of course, the big thing everybody wants to know about is what's next.
-Sure.
-A lot of the rumors are really pointing to 2 things.
Some sort of streaming radio product that compete with Pandora--
-Uh-huh.
-and a television set.
-Uh-huh.
We've heard rumors of TV sets for a long time though.
-Sure.
-Do you think we may actually see some hardware next year?
-You know, there's 2 really waring camps.
One group where thing's gonna be TV and the other thing there's gonna be kind of a more advanced cable box, something a little bit beyond what they're already doing.
I'm kind of in that segment camp that things that
something like a TV set is a little bit harder to sell right off--
-Right.
-than it would be to do something that could really replace the cable box people have at home.
-And you can see how a streaming music service would fit very nicely with iTunes.
-Yeah, exactly.
But honestly, that's not really like a-- it's sexy or exciting product.
-Sure.
-It's really to compete more with upstarts like Pandora, Rdio, Spotify.
-Right.
-These things that have really kind of taken the idea of purchasing music and making it more of a subscription feature.
-Now, when we do talk about existing products, you know, the iPhone, iPad, iPod,
what kind of changes will we see next year?
-I mean anything really monumental or just, you know, a little tweak here and there?
-I think 2013 is gonna be the year to tweak--
-Okay.
-in part because 2012 is so much of a new product.
The one thing that really--
-Yeah.
-did not get a big, big overhaul was the iPad.
-We did see the Mini though.
-We did, but that's almost a separate product.
-Uh-huh.
-The big, big thing I expect in 2013 is a real kind of redesign of the iPad.
We have both 3rd and 4th generation models this year, but it was basically the iPad 2
with some new screen technology and some beefed up specs.
-Sure.
-I think there are definitely improvements to be made and a foreign factor that they can push out.
-Very exciting.
Now, in 2012, we saw a lot of leadership changes.
I imagine that's going to trickle over into the next year.
What are your thoughts on management?
-Sure.
They really did have a lot of big moves last month in November that really kind of put their executive team into 3 kind of power structures in 3 big groups including technologies and iOS software.
The big focus I think is really gonna be tightening that down.
I don't think we're gonna see a lot of changes in terms of movement.
The one big thing to keep an eye on is who they hire to replace their outgoing retail chief.
-Uh-huh.
-They haven't announced anybody yet.
They're on a search right now.
I suspect we'll something very early next year that kind of shows who they want to be leading their retail group.
-And speaking of leadership, we're now what?
Maybe 15 months since the passing of Steve Jobs.
So, 2013 will be a full year without him.
How is this company going to continue to move forward without his leadership, without his presence, and without his ideas in the pipeline?
I guess, what do you in that camp or in that front?
-Sure.
I think a lot of focus has been on the product pipeline, things that were in production ready to go when Steve was still around.
I think what Tim Cook will continue to do and what Apple even did a little bit before Steve Jobs came on was really take away the products that needed some improvement.
If you look at some of the big hits they've had including the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone,--
-Uh-huh.
-It's really been taking something that someone has done
and making it better.
-Yeah.
-And I don't think that's gonna change.
-Alright.
Well, a lot to look forward to.
-Definitely.
-Apple TV sounds exciting.
-Yes.
-Thank you so much Josh Lowensohn.
I'm Kara Tsuboi.
Thanks for watching The Future Of.
