As Little As He Wants To

Photo from the Verge

Apple CEO Tim Cook was close-mouthed tonight during his interview at the All Things Digital Conference.

He dribbled out a few nuggets about Apple's manufacturing and intellectual-property philosophy but didn't give the audience what it most wanted to hear: information about an iPhone 5 or an Apple television. He even declined to give specific answers about lesser (for Apple) endeavors, such as improvements to Siri or the Facebook interface.

Since Steve Jobs' death on October 5th, Apple has: introduced a new iPad to great acclaim, announced its first dividend in 17 years, and beat the analysts' estimates by more than 20% for each of the last two quarters, the last being all the more remarkable during a period in which other tech giants have faltered.

Apple's stock has risen by over 50% since October 5th. In less than eight months the company has increased its value by $180 billion (to $535 billion)---the increase alone is worth about three entire Facebooks at today's close. With that kind of performance Tim Cook can say as much or as little as he wants to.

 AAPL has outstripped the indices since since Steve Jobs' passing.