Edible Apple

During yesterday’s earnings conference call, the increasingly engaging Tim Cook fielded a question about a new tablet-comer on the scene, the Microsoft Surface tablet.

Cook responded, while sighing for dramatic effect, “I haven’t personally played with the Surface yet but what we’re reading about it that it’s a fairly compromised, confusing product.”

Indeed, a number of reviews have painted rather unflattering opinions regarding Microsoft’s first homegrown foray into the tablet space.

Josh Topolsky of The Verge, for example, wrote that “instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.” Another high profile reviewer noted that it was tough to discern just what type of consumer the Surface was geared towards.

But reviews aside, let’s get back to Cook and his Alabama style zingers.

“I think one of the toughest things you do with each product is to make hard tradeoffs, and decide what a product should be,” Cook added. “And we’ve really done that with the iPad. And so the user experience is absolutely incredible.”

“I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don’t think it would do all those things very well. I think people, when they look at the iPad versus competitive offerings, are going to conclude they really want an iPad. And I think people have done that to date. And I think they will continue to do that.”