WATCH: Tim Cook's First TV Interview As Apple CEO

Catharine Smith
Updated

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What does Apple CEO Tim Cook, boss of the world's most valuable company and successor to the venerable Steve Jobs, have in common with NBC News anchor Brian Williams? On the surface, not a whole lot. But to hear Williams tell it, they're basically the same guy.

In his first TV interview as CEO, Cook sat down with Williams for a segment on "Rock Center" that aired at 10 p.m. ET on Thursday. The two raced through a slew of topics, touching on the passing of Steve Jobs, Cook's vision for keeping the company "cutting edge", plans to bring some manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. from China in 2013, a fleeting hint at an Apple-made TV set -- and more.

During the 20-minute interview, Williams cannot help but make several comparisons between himself and Cook. "It sounded to me that you and I grew up with the same American life, kind of grindingly simple and normal American middle class household — when you and I as kids would go to a neighbor’s house and see, under their new TV, Sony Trinitron, that would tell us something instantly," Williams said at one point.

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Later, Williams pointed out that Cook looked more like an average guy than the demigod Jobs was to some Apple fans: "[Steve Jobs] was all black turtleneck and the glass frames and mystical and mysterious, and — you know, forgive me, you and I could work at a Best Buy. We’re, you know, plain-looking people."

Joking aside, the interview's high point came as the two discussed Apple's manufacturing partnerships overseas. Cook told Williams that Apple plans to make a line of existing Mac computers in the United States next year. In a Bloomberg Businessweek interview that hit the web on Thursday morning and became available in print on Friday, Cook also said that the company will invest $100 million to follow through with manufacturing partnerships in the U.S. in 2013. He did not, in either interview, specify which line of Macs would move stateside.

Cook's announcement comes at a time when Apple is working to investigate and improve upon reported worker mistreatment -- which includes low wages, long hours, hiring underage employees and unsafe working conditions -- by partners in Apple's global supply chain. His willingness to discuss the possibility of manufacturing in America throws him, once again, into stark contrast with Steve Jobs, who once told President Obama that "Those jobs aren't coming back."

Watch Part 1 of Cook's interview with Brian Williams above. Part 2 can be found below. Visit 9to5Mac for a full transcript of the segment.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tim Cook Goes To China

Apple's problem of allegedly poor working conditions at its suppliers' factories in China had been known for some time, but this year Cook actually stepped up and did something about it. After the <em>New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1" target="_hplink">published an expose</a> on the human cost of manufacturing an iPad, Cook went to China to visit manufacturing sites. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1" target="_hplink">Steve Jobs reportedly never set foot in a Chinese factory</a>. More substantially than a PR stunt, Cook also <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/apple-foxconn-fair-labor-association_n_1273915.html" target="_hplink">asked</a> the D.C.-based Fair Labor Association to independently audit Foxconn's and other's component manufacturing facilities. Investigators found that laborers often worked <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/foxconn-apple-factories-labor-violations_n_1389392.html" target="_hplink">more than 60 hours per week</a> in March. Since then, Apple reportedly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/apple-foxconn-audit_n_1819701.html?utm_hp_ref=technology" target="_hplink">sketched out a timeline</a> for having workers work sane schedules.

Tim Cook Doesn't Make Employees' Lives Miserable

OK, so we can't exactly speak for <em>every</em> single one of Apple's <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000119312511282113/d220209d10k.htm" target="_hplink">60,000 employees</a>, but there are few indications that underlings are happier under Cook than they were under Jobs. <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/24/apple-tim-cook-ceo/" target="_hplink">As <em>Fortune</em>'s Adam Lashinsky wrote</a> of an annual retreat for top execs in April, "the spirit of the meeting was upbeat and even fun [...] a stark contrast to the grim and fearful tone Jobs engendered at the meetings." Indeed, peppered throughout Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs are many episodes of Jobs berating his workers for their incompetence. Cook, in contrast, seems like a leveler head.

Tim Cook Is Not A Scrooge McDuck

Steve Jobs was many things, but "charitable" wasn't one of them. But just a week into Cook's tenure, <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/08/tim-cook-announces-new-charity-matching-service-for-apple-employees/" target="_hplink">the new CEO started a program</a> in which Apple matches dollar-for-dollar any charitable donation made to a nonprofit, up to $10,000. Such gift-matching systems are standard at many American companies; but this was a first for Apple. To boot, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/apple-charity-donation_n_1253185.html" target="_hplink">Apple under Cook also gave away $50 million to Stanford hospitals</a>. By contrast, Jobs <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/" target="_hplink"> personally didn't have any public record of giving to charity</a> and once reportedly employees that <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/2/2766403/tim-cook-apple-charity-project-red-stanford" target="_hplink">Apple giving away money was a waste of time</a>. Jerk moves.

Tim Cook Shares Some Of Apple's Massive Pile Of Cash

This ain't exactly charity, but it is a good thing. While Jobs wasn't one to give to investors any of Apple's trucks-full of cash in the form of dividends or stock buyback, Cook is fine with it. In February, <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/19/apples-dividend-and-buyback-what-the-analysts-are-saying/" target="_hplink">Apple issued a $2.65-per-quarter dividend and promised to buy $10 million worth in stock back from investors</a>. In short, Cook wanted to reward investors, both big and small, for the years they'd keep their money in the company.

Tim Cook Has Made Apple A Ton Of Money

Of course, the most important thing for investors is the stock price itself -- and wow, it's doing fantastic. In one year, Cook has made Apple 77 percent richer. On his first day, a share of Apple was trading for $376. As as I write this, it's trading for $667. That ends up being an additional $353 <em>billion</em>. Of course Jobs should be credited with the upward trajectory he left the company with, but it was Cook who guided the company to that high.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.