Apple CEO Tim Cook On The iPhone X Price Tag, Augmented Reality And Concerns About Face ID

Cook On The Record

With iOS 11 and the iPhone 8 debuting this week -- and the iPhone X on its way soon -- Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed some of the key opportunities and concerns in an interview with "Good Morning America" Tuesday. Cook called it a "profound day" with the launch of augmented reality capabilities as part of iOS 11, and contended that the iPhone X starting price of $999 is a "value price." Cook also spoke about the debate over Face ID facial recognition and the removal of the Home Button in the iPhone X, and opened up about his reaction to entering Apple's Steve Jobs Theater for the first time: "I could feel him there."

What follows are Cook's comments during the interview.

Augmented Reality

This is huge because it's the first time that hundreds of millions of customers – later today, hundreds of millions of customers will be able to use AR for the first time. So we're bringing it to mainstream. If you've got an iPhone 6S or later, you have augmented reality today. We made it really simple for developers to design apps with their passion and bring it to everybody. It's taking the virtual world and overlaying it to [the] physical world. So you saw in demo earlier this morning, to position chairs in a living room. It's a fantastic way to shop. It's a fantastic way to learn. You might even want to look at your favorite car and actually go in the car. You have to do that in a showroom today, you can now do that right from your living room. It's unbelievable.

Simplifying AR For Developers

We're taking the complex and making it simple. This is what Apple is so fantastic at. We want everybody to be able to use AR and so we've taken the complexity that developers would normally have to do in their apps, and made it simple for them to convert all of their apps to an AR experience. The thing that's very different about Apple is, in one day, we can make AR available for hundreds of millions of people. … This is a day to remember. This is a profound day.

Facial Recognition Concerns

We're about your privacy. We want to protect your data because we know it's yours, not ours. Once you place your face in the phone, it's in the phone. Apple doesn't have it. We've encrypted it on your device -- you make the decisions about who has it, not us. We're very protective of our customers' data. Because we believe that privacy is very important in this world -- there are hackers everywhere trying to steal your information. We want it to be yours -- it is not ours.

Removing The Home Button In iPhone X

The Home Button is beloved. But we think that having an edge-to-edge display, [so] that the whole phone is a display, will be loved even more. And so we're doing that for all of us.

Trump's DACA Compromise

I am encouraged about it. These folks – I think it's really important for everybody to understand – these folks came to the country when they were very young. Most of them don't even remember coming to the country because they were 1, 2, 3 years old at the time. And these kids, if you talk to them, they deeply love this country. They've had great jobs, they pay taxes. These guys are our neighbors, they're our co-workers. So we feel it's essential that we not only allow them to stay in our country, that we [also] welcome them. That we desire that they be here. I hope everyone reaches out and meets some of the dreamers, because it will really warm your heart in meeting them. And so I am encouraged that Congress will pass a law to make this permanent, and we're doing everything we can to advocate for that.

$999 Price Tag Of The iPhone X

Well, it's a value price actually for the technology that you're getting. And as it turns out, you know, most people are now paying for phones over long periods of time. And so very few people will pay the price tag of the phone initially. Also, most people actually trade in their current phone. And so that reduces the price further. And some carriers even throw in subsidies and discounts. And so when we look at it, the phone -- the iPhone in particular -- has become so essential in our daily lives, [and] people want it to do more and more and more. And so we built more and more technology in to be able to do that. Apple has never been about selling the most of anything. That is not our objective. Our objectives are not big revenues. Our objective is to make the best product that enriches people's lives. We want to help people.

Can Multiple People Use Face ID On The Same iPhone X?

Oh, that's a good question. I wouldn't recommend that. I wouldn't recommend that. I'd leave it at that. I wouldn't recommend that.

Opening Of The Steve Jobs Theater

I walked into the theater that day, and from the moment I walked in there, I know this may sound strange to your viewers, but I could feel him there. His DNA is very much the DNA of Apple. And the way that his philosophy of life is how we run the company. We don't sit and think about 'What would Steve do?' But we think about the principles that Apple is based on, a values-based company that is making insanely great products, that are simple to use. Where the technology takes the backseat, not the front seat. The user experience is top for us. We want users to be happy. And so this company still runs like that today. And you can feel him in there. You can feel him in the products, and in everything. And I love it that way.