In an interview with the BBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the technology industry, including his own company, still lacks sufficient female representation. He emphasized the importance of diversity in the workforce, saying that technology will not achieve its full potential without it. Cook also expressed his belief that Augmented Reality (AR) and the Metaverse are “profound,” and that in the future people will wonder how they lived without AR. He added that Apple is investing heavily in the AR space. The Metaverse is the concept of entire virtual worlds, with big tech companies like Meta, formerly Facebook, investing heavily in it.

During his first visit to the UK since the pandemic, Tim Cook was met by BBC journalist Zoe Kleinman. She noted that the CEO of the world’s richest company was friendly, courteous, and reflective. Dressed in his typical dark attire, Cook didn’t engage in small talk but did express his condolences on the death of the Queen and joked about the British weather. During the interview, Cook admitted that he wasn’t a good role model for work-life balance and instead compartmentalizes issues that are outside of his control. Additionally, Cook showed interest in Kleinman’s BBC audio recorder, noting that Apple still sells wired headphones despite the company largely abandoning the headphone socket from its iPhones. Cook also shared his thoughts on diversity, emphasizing that the technology industry needs more women in leadership roles.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has emphasized the importance of having women in technology during an interview with the BBC. He stated that technology “will not achieve nearly what it could achieve” without a more diverse workforce, and there were “no good excuses” for the lack of women in the sector. Apple has recently launched a development programme for female founders and app creators in the UK. The company had 35% female staff across its global workforce in 2021, according to its own diversity figures. Cook also expressed his fascination with augmented reality and the metaverse, stating that Apple is investing heavily in that space.

Equality:

According to Deloitte Global, large global technology firms are projected to have almost 33% overall female representation in their workforces in 2022, with 25% occupying technical roles. However, the sector faces the challenge of a lack of girls opting to pursue science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) subjects in school. Mr Cook believes that businesses cannot use this as an excuse for not hiring enough women and that the number of people taking computer science and programming needs to be increased. He suggests that everyone should be required to take a coding course before finishing school to have a basic understanding of how coding works and how apps are created. Apple has developed its own programming language, Swift, along with educational content to help people learn it.

During his visit to the UK, Mr Cook met with a group of female app founders, three of whom have been selected to join Apple’s new programme for female founders and app creators. Among them is Alexia de Broglie, who created Your Juno, a personal finance education app for women and non-binary people. Ariana Alexander-Sefre runs Spoke, a wellness app aimed at young people. Both women spoke about the need to increase diversity in the tech industry and create a more level playing field for all. Ariana expressed hope that in five years, there will no longer be a need for defined niches, and that the entire field will be equalized. Mr Cook echoed these sentiments, stressing the importance of diverse perspectives at the table to ensure great solutions in technology. He also urged businesses to take action to increase the number of people pursuing computer science and programming, including requiring coding courses for all students before they finish school.