苹果CEO发言稿的弦外之音

    苹果从不浪费时间，不管是自己的，还是别人的。本周一上午6:23，我挂断电话时脑子里浮现的就是这个想法。当时我刚刚参加完苹果的电话会议，主题是讨论它新的红利支付计划。

    苹果用了不到23分钟的时间公开了所有相关数据，回答了部分问题，分析了这个消息对金融市场可能产生的影响，并且进行了总结性发言。所有这些，都是遵照一份事先精心准备好的发言稿进行的，以对苹果此次支付红利和股票回购的新闻进行解释。

    尽管这个电话会议是一天前举行的，但说到这份发言稿，以及苹果处理问题的效率之高，一切都值得我们花点时间对发言稿中涉及到的各条因素加以玩味。电话会议一开始，苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克就按照准备好的草稿进行了发言，并做了简短的说明，推出红利支付计划既不意味着苹果会停止对未来进行投资，也不意味着它已然看不到自身的发展空间。许多IT公司往往以此作为借口，拒绝向股东派发红利。由于我们了解到库克发言的内容及顺序是提前拟定的，因此我们相信，库克及其公关团队已经对发言清单上的所有内容做到了深思熟虑。现在，我们来具体分析一下每项内容。为什么库克会提及这些内容？他对各项内容轻重缓急的排序情况如何？

    “我们创新的速度之快简直难以想象”这是库克的开场白，然后他立刻就开始按事先准备好的顺序开始实质性的发言。下面我一一列举其发言的内容清单并加以简单的点评。

    1.“依靠应用和内容来打造庞大的生态系统。”现在，苹果的应用商店生态系统，可谓妇孺皆知。他在这里使用了“内容”这个字眼，有点耐人寻味。据报道，苹果正在试图与电影制片厂和电视台达成内容交易。令人欣喜的是，这二者愿意提供的内容与当年iTunes推出时唱片公司同意提供的内容相比要令人乐观得多。同时，苹果也在创建自己的电子图书业务，而且该业务还成了美国司法部（Justice Department）反托拉斯法的调查对象。库克提到的这一点值得关注。

    2.“提供iCloud等杰出服务。iCloud在发布仅仅几个月之后，用户已经突破破百万大关。”尽管平时喜爱谈论云服务的人对此可能并不苟同，在他们眼里，iCloud还远远远算不上“杰出”；但，不管怎么说，它在苹果眼中的重要性显而易见。

    3.“此外，我们还开发了Siri（Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface，语音翻译与识别接口）等了不起的软件，开创了与iPhone交互的全新方式，无疑意义重大。”不管你喜欢还是讨厌Siri（我自己反正是不喜欢），iPhone 4S的成功对于那些原本眼巴巴地盼着iPhone 5、结果却大失所望的苹果用户而言简直是个天大的玩笑。（而且，我也不喜欢把“接口”用作动词。但是，这些都是题外话。）

    4.“同时，我们也开始投资，继续扩大苹果产品在全球的分销渠道。”哦？这方面，真是多多益善。

    5.“我们将继续开设苹果商店，仅本财年就会增设40家。”看来，不管零售巨头彭尼公司（J.C. Penney）新任首席执行官罗恩•约翰逊（前苹果零售负责人——译注）在任与否，苹果商店的零售快车依然一往无前。

    6.“我们开始与新的运营商以及第三方代理商合作，以扩大用户数量。”无聊的商业内容。等等，你刚刚说什么，电信合作伙伴数量增加？而且，除了百思买（Best Buy）、沃尔玛（Walmart）等原有的零售合作伙伴之外，现在又增添了新的零售商？太好了！

    Apple doesn't waste time. Its own, or anyone else's. That's what I thought when I disconnected my phone Monday at 6:23 a.m., at the conclusion of the Apple teleconference to discuss its new dividend-payment plans.

    In 23 minutes, the company got out all its facts, answered some questions, prepared financial markets for its news and wrapped things up -- all while sticking to a carefully prepared script to explain the dividend and share buyback news.

    Speaking of the script, and given how efficient Apple (AAPL) is with time, it's worthwhile to pause a day later to reflect on some of the elements of the message. Near the beginning of the call, in his prepared remarks, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a short homily on why implementing a dividend does not mean Apple will quit investing in its future or that it doesn't see growth opportunities. These are the reasons many tech companies give for not paying a dividend. Because we know the list is scripted, we know Cook and his communications team thought about each item on the list. So let's consider each item, why Cook mentioned it, and how he rank-ordered them.

    "We are innovating at an incredible pace," Cook began, immediately launching into his list, which I will number and annotate:

    1. "Building a tremendous ecosystem with apps and content." We all know about Apple's App Store ecosystem by now. The choice of the word "content" was interesting. Apple reportedly is discussing content deals with film and TV studios -- who, gloriously, leak more than the record companies did when iTunes was getting started. Apple also is building its e-book business, the subject of a Justice Department anti-trust investigation. It's noteworthy that Cook led here.

    2. "Providing great services such as iCloud, which has already eclipsed over 100 million users within just a few months of its launch." For what it's worth, the people who like to chatter about this sort of thing don't consider iCloud a "great" service yet. It is clearly important to Apple, however.

    3. "And we're delivering incredible developments like Siri, a profound new way to interface with the iPhone." Love it or hate it -- I don't love Siri yet -- the success of the iPhone 4S makes a mockery of those who were disappointed that it wasn't the iPhone 5. (I also don't love the use of "interface" as a verb. But I digress.)

    4. "We are also investing in distribution around the world." Oh? More would have been great about this.

    5. "We continue to open our own stores, including 40 this fiscal year alone." The Apple retail juggernaut continues, with or without Ron Johnson, now CEO at J.C. Penney (JCP).

    6. "We are expanding our footprint with new carrier partners and other third-party resellers." Ho-hum. Boring business stuff. But wowza, more telecom partners than you've already got? And more retailers in addition to the likes of Best Buy (BBY), Walmart (WMT), and so on? Okay, good.