[thumping from trunk] ron there we go. Hey [thumping] help. Tonight on rock center, apples new leader tim cook gives his First Television interview since the death of steve jobs. Tonight, he talks about the final gift from the founder. He responds to apples critics, why cant you be a made in America Company . And hints about what may be the next big thing. Were living the jetsons with this. When you turn on the Tv Television is still television. Also tonight, the conversation every family should have, the decision faced by every family. So why do so many get it wrong and regret it . Harry smith gives us a very intimate look inside one place where theyre trying to change that. Give me as much time as i can get. But keep me comfortable. Also tonight, ann curry travels to new zealand to visit film director Peter Jackson. Can his hotly anticipated new movie the hobbit possibly live up to the lord of the rings . One of my favorite characters. Ann goes inside his magical world. Now were really in trouble. Yeah, where are we looking . Oh, dear. That and more tonight as rock center gets under way. Good evening and welcome to rock center. The impact of apple on life in america is well established by any standard. They have changed our electronics and our culture and whether youre the owner of apple products or not, youve got to admit that much. As much as any company can be about one guy, apple was steve jobs. And now that steve jobs is gone, apple is run by tim cook. He hasnt talked a whole lot about his life or his business. He certainly hasnt done so on television until now. Apple is famously secretively and while it took months of meetings and negotiations, tim cook agreed to be interviewed and we met up at one of the places apple has transformed. Nobody remembers the guy who came after thomas edison. And nobody seems to recognize tim cook as we walked together across the teeming floor of Grand Central station. I like being anonymous. As we walk, were surrounded by examples of what apple has done to our society, both good and bad. People now live their lives while listening to the communicating with members of and who else would have us believe they intend to be the one company that reverses hundreds of years of Business History by becoming the one company that never fades away into irrelevance . You realize if youre a company that can keep amazing us consumer, if youre a company that can stay fresh without an expiration date, youll be the First Company ever to do that. There is a cycle, that circle of life, life and death, and youre trying to buck that trend. Dont bet against it. We started our day with tim cook in Lower Manhattan at another of his 250 apple stores where we began the questioning with whats different about it. How are you not steve jobs . In many ways. One of the things he did for me that removed a gigantic burden that would have normally existed is he told me on a couple of occasions before he passed away to never question what he would have done, never ask the question, what steve would do, to just do whats right. Doing right has done well for tim cook so far. Hes had a good first year on the job. The companys stock is up about 45 during his tenure. And think about this, hes already presided over the rollout of three ipads, two iphones and three macs. It is beautiful. Stunning. Youve got guys whose job it is to get this mesh right, to get this curve right. To get it precisely right. In fairness, however, this past year, they havent gotten everything precisely right. Weather. Nice weather starting with siri, the small woman who lives in your iphone. The service amazed all of us at first, but then came under criticism for not being perfect or as consistently amazing as steve jobs wanted it to be. Then there are the maps. Iphones used to come with google maps until they set out on their own. But apples version wasnt quite ready for launch. It lacked some critical street smarts. And in those early days, god help you if you went anywhere near the Brooklyn Bridge or the hoover dam. It was a rare and public embarrassment and cook fired two top executives in charge. How big of a setback was maps . It didnt meet our customers expectations and our expectations of ourselves are even higher than our customers. However, i can tell you, we and you said goodbye to some executives . Well, we screwed up. And we are putting the weight of the Company Behind correcting it. As for the iphone 5 itself, they have flown off those perfect apple store shelves. But buyers of the iphone 5 soon discovered they had to buy something else, none of the old power cords work on the new equipment. Why did we have to buy new cords for this . As it turns out, we had a connector that we used for a decade or more. I have 500 of them at home if you need any. But its one of those things where we couldnt make this product with that connector. But let me tell you, the product is so worth it. And thats the thing about apple, sleek isnt cheap. Those white earbuds announce to the world you have a couple of hundred dollars to spend. It will buy you a product that works like no other. And the apple products youll see are the ones people bring in from home. Theyre usually right there on the desk next to the computers we have to use for work. Apple prides itself on being equal parts Computer Company and religion. Apple fans get whipped up into a stampeding froth with every new product release. Customers famously camp outdoors and then emerge triumphant, emotionally spent. Journalists flock to those dramatic product rollouts as if the ceo is going to reveal stone tablets, instead of the kind with scratchproof glass. And e culture of secrecy is designed to keep it that way. Why are you institutionally so secretive . How is it that you know how many times ive listened to a bob dylan song or any other song and yet we never get to know anything about you guys . We think holding our product plan secret is very important because people love surprises. This was one surprise apple could not have loved, the new samsung ad campaign. Its blistering, bold, damaging. It portrays apple products and people who love them as somehow passe and uncool, even desperate. Its a blunt instrument disguised as satire and its a frontal attack on a giant that would have been unthinkable not too long ago. What did you just do . Just sent my playlist. The galaxy s3. When do you think well be able to do that thing . Hey. Hey, mom, dad. Thanks for holding our spot. You guys have fun. Home by midnight, you two. The next big thing is already here. This ises the line for apps. The unmistakable message right there, apple products are for your parents. Samsung makes the really cool stuff and theyre much more casual about it. They came along and tried to paint those with white earbuds, apple users as losers. Theyre trying to paint their product as cool and yours as not cool. Is this thermonuclear war . We love our customers. And well fight to defend them with anyone. Is it thermonuclear war . The reality is that we love competition at apple. We think it makes us all better. But we want people to invent their own stuff. Hes talking about the legal fight between apple and samsung. Theyve sued each other in courts around the world over patent infringements. Apple won the last round in the u. S. When a jury ruled samsung owed them 1 billion for stealing ideas. Samsung was back in court just today appealing the judgment. Sometimes the business of making Pretty Things is ugly. How tough is your business . How surprised would we civilians be at how rough it gets . Its tough. Its very tough. You have people trying to hack into systems on a constant basis. You have people trying to enlist confidential information about future product plans. All of these things are things that we constantly fight. And then theres tim cooks larger challenge, the man who r rhapsodyizes about it. You have a grindingly simple and normal american life. When you and i as kids would go to a neighbors house and see under their new tv sony trinitron, that would tell us something instantly. And youre smiling. And that brand lasted up until walkman, diskman. But then, fastforward to today, its less meaningful. How do you not become sony with all apologies to sony . Were very simple people at apple. We focus on making the worlds best products and enriching peoples lives. I think some companies, maybe even the one that you mentioned, maybe they decided that they could do everything. We have to make sure at apple that we stay true, to focus, to laser focus, we can only do great things a few times. Only on a few products. But will the next great thing be apples longrumored move into the Television Business . Its a market that we have intense interest in and its a market that we see that has been left behind. What does he mean by that . Tim cook goes on to talk about that. Well show you as much as hes willing to say about what might be the next big thing when we come back with part two of our interview right after this break. Two beams it will make something explode and thats more fun . Yeah and its more powerful youre saying . Yeah [ male announcer ] its not complicated. Doing two things at once is better. And only at ts network lets you talk and surf on your iphone 5. Nespresso. Where i never have to compromise on anything. Where just one touch creates the perfect coffee. Where every cappuccino and latte is only made with fresh milk. And where the staff is exceptionally friendly. Nespresso. What else . Gingerbread cookie coffees no wonder people get jolly around the holidays. Try Dunkin Donuts holiday flavors. Pick some up where you buy groceries, before theyre gone. America runs on dunkin. Intel mnemonic you work. You play. You type. You connect. But the one thing you havent done on a notebook, is touch. Extend your reach with the all new hp envy 4 touchsmart ultrabook with intel core i3 processor. Only at best buy. Wooohooo. Hahaahahaha oh. There you go. Wooohooo. Hahaahahaha im gonna stand up to her no youre not. I know. You know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. How happy are they jimmy . Happier than a witch in a broom factory. Get happy. Get geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Welcome back. This is the first time apples tim cook has done this, a fullon television interview. Spoken in any detail about the death of the legendary cofounder steve jobs. And here now, part two of our in august 2011, tim cook was made ceo of apple. Steve jobs reduced his own role to chairman of the board. Then less than two months later, he was gone, after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. Its so great to see so many of you here today. It was tim cook who was chosen to preside over the private Memorial Service for apple employees. Thousands of people gathered as the face of the founder gazed down upon them from the side of the building. It was the saddest time of my life. Did you know how sick he was . I always thought that he would bounce back because he always did. And it wasnt until extremely close to the end that i reached sort of an intellectual point that he couldnt bounce this time. Big boss coming through, people, look alive. Its his company to run now. And after the peaceful transition of power, he was quickly forced into crisis footing because of the situation in china, where so many apple products are assembled by skilled workers. Theres been trouble and cook traveled there after Harsh Criticism of poor working conditions and low wages. The situation was later parodied on snl by cast members who actually make up the heart of apples demographic. Oh, no, talk about apple now. Its no work, right . You want starbucks to take you to duncan dkin donuts . China remains a major issue for apple and tim cook seems to have a ready answer for it. Why cant you be a made in America Company . This iphone, as a matter of fact, the engine in here is made in america. And not only are the engines in here made in america, but engines are made in america and are exported. The glass on this phone is made in kentucky. So weve been working for years on doing more and more in the united states. Next year, we will do one of our mac lines in the united states. Lets say our constitution was a little different and barack obama called you in tomorrow and said, get everybody out of china and do whatever you have to do, make these, make everything you make in the united states. What would that do to the price of this device . Honestly, its not so much about price. Its about the skills, et cetera. Over time, there are skills that are associated with manufacturing that have left the view out. Cook says apple has already created more than 600,000 jobs here in the u. S. , that includes everything from research and development to retail to a solar power farm. He also points to the app industry, another one of those that didnt exist before apple came along. All those icons and all those downloads employ a lot of people. All this side is ipods here. It was such a different world just six years ago when we sat down with steve jobs for one of his last television interviews. He showed us around apples Flagship Store on fifth avenue in new york which six years later is still the big glass granddaddy of them all. Back then, steve jobs was as usual all about the future. Weve got some really great ideas of the products were going to build next year and the year after that were working really hard on. I think our focal length is always forward. He was all black turtleneck and glass frames and mystical and mysterious. Forgive me, you and i could work at a best buy, were plainlooking people. Youre a much more conventional, seeming, guy. But theres obviously brainpower he saw in you that you brought to bear on this job. Im not sure a conventional person would have come to apple at that point in time. Almost everyone i know thought i was crazy. Thats because apple was on the ropes back in 1998. Steve jobs had just come back and was trying to steal cook away from compaq computer, a name that was actually vibrant back then. Id just gotten to compaq, just gotten to houston. I agreed to come out and talk. Five minutes into the talk with him, im wanting to throw caution to the wind and come to apple. And the rest is history. Tim cooks personal history starts to robertsdale, alabama, the son of a Gulf Coast Shipyard worker. He went off to auburn and then to duke for an mba. Among what little else we know about him, hes got a lot of bob dylan on his ipod and Bobby Kennedy was his hero. He still has his accent from the south. These days, he finds solitude in the west. For all the folks trying to get to know you and figure you out, where do you go when you need to go someplace . I work out. Im in the gym about 5 00 a. M. Every morning. If some free time, i go to a national park. I love getting in nature. And so these are the things that calm my mind and allow me to think clearly. Thats what i do. This is kind of your television comingout. And im glad you did this. Does this mean you have reached a cruising altitude . Theres no maybe for other ceos. Theres no cruising altitude at apple. Tim cook is a manager with a vision who is following in the footsteps of a visionaryturnedmanager. While he has to worry about global issues like the counterfeiters who instantly turn out fake copies of every new apple product, cook has to keep one eye on the stock price constantly and the other on the future. And that sure sounds like it means tv. What can apple do for televisionwatching . What do you know that is going to change the game that we dont know yet . Its a market that we see that has been left behind. I used to watch the jetsons as a kid. Absolutely. I loved the jetsons. Were living the jetsons with this. George, youll never guess what happened. Facetime is the jetsons but television is still television. Its an area of interest. I cant say more than that. Im not shocked. Ten years from now, americans are going to be amazed that they ever give us broad generalities. Whats the new thing . Its okay to tell me. Let this stuff out. Whatever youre thinking of for the future. Its all right. Our whole goal in life is to give you something you didnt know you wanted and then once you get it, you cant imagine your life without it. Starting with . And you can count on apple doing that. Oh, frustrating. So television is an area of intense interest, thats almost a declaration in apple speak, clearly this is an ongoing conversation. In fact, were going to keep talking about it tonight. 11 30 eastern, were going to talk about it in a live stream. Ill be joined by the editor of the verge. Well answer your questions. Its all on our website tonight. Hope you can join us for that. Well take a break now. Up next, its a situation every family needs to face. When we come back, some remarkable lessons about one of lifes most important conversations. Shes not famous. Shes never been on a red carpet. But shes the star of my life. [ female announcer ] kay jewelers presents a new collection from hollywoods premier jewelry designer neil lane designs. My designs are inspired by hollywoods glamorous past. [ female announcer ] handcrafted diamond rings, earrings, and necklaces with a vintage look. At kay, the numberone Jewelry Store in america. For the star in your life. Every kiss begins with kay for the star in your life. When it the star in your life. Comes to toilet paper, theres no such thing whenas too soft. I know what i like. I like feeling both clean and pampered. Why should i compromise . Quilted northern ultra plush® with the innerlux layer. For a comfortable, confident clean, or your money back. [ male announcer ] tis the season to discover the kid in all of us. Enjoy free ipping and great values on your Holiday Shopping from l. L. Bean. Enjoy free ipping and great values music is a universal language. But when i was in an accident. I was worried the Health Care System spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. Information on my phone. Connection to doctors who get where im from. And tools to estimate what my care may cost. So i never missed a beat. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Youre watching rock center. Were here in studio 3b in new york. Next up, Peter Jackson, the director of the hobbit. Him, helped to make him who he is today. Ann curry will tell us how. That and more next. [ fe