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It’s not just Apple CEO Tim Cook who’s promising great new products this year. Now Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services, is jumping on the bandwagon.
The executive, who oversees iTunes, said Wednesday at the Recode Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., that Apple this year has “the best product pipeline I’ve seen in 25 years.”
He noted that “the reason we’ve been successful is because we’re completely focused on the products we’re building. We’re not focused on building 100 things…We want to do a few great things.”
Cue added that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs “would be extremely proud of the products we’re building.”
Apple will host its Worldwide Developers Conference next week in San Francisco. The company won’t introduce new hardware, sources tell CNET, but instead will detail new software features and services. Those could include iOS 8, OS X 10.1, a home-automation service, and maybe even mobile payments. The lack of new hardware in June could mean a very busy fall for Apple.
Cue, of course, didn’t reveal what new products Apple is developing, but he gave some possible hints. For one, Cue said Apple has some interesting plans in store for Beats and its curated music streaming service.
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“We have a lot of customers, and we know what they listen to,” he said. “We have a lot of customers who have an easy way to pay. We have a great relationship with artists. … We think all of those things, when you put them all together, it’s [Beats] on steroids. It’s going to bring great opportunities for artists and great music for customers.”
Then there’s also Apple TV. Apple has hinted for quite some time that it’s working a more complete, over-the-top video streaming service. However, there are no signs such a product is close to ready, which largely has been attributed to difficulties securing content deals at reasonable rates.
“TV is a hard problem to solve,” Cue said. “One of the problems you have with a TV is you have a disparate system with a bunch of providers. There’s no standards. There’s a lot of rights issues.”
But even if Apple does’t release the anticipated iTV anytime soon, it will keep working on its current Apple TV box.
“Apple TV is going to continue to evolve,” Cue said. “It gives a great experience, and we’re going to keep improving it.”
