Tim Cook on Apple Watch, iPhone 6S, cars and privacy

Tim Cook says momentum for the Apple Watch has accelerated, but don’t expect to hear sales figures any time soon.

“I don’t want to give anybody information I don’t have to,” Apple’s chief executive told a crowd of tech executives and media during a Q&A in Laguna Beach on Monday.

During the 40-minute event at WSJD Live, Cook discussed nearly every category of the company’s products -- including the Watch, Apple Music, iPhone 6S and Apple TV. Not surprisingly, he lauded each as groundbreaking and transformative, even the 6S, which has been called just an incremental improvement over the iPhone 6.

“I don’t see it that way at all,” he told Journal Editor in Chief Gerard Baker. “The 6S has tremendous innovation.”

When asked whether the autos industry is ripe for disruption -- a not-so-subtle way of trying to get Cook to talk about potential Apple car plans -- Cook said “you’d have to ask other technology companies what they think.”

But he offered up some insight, saying software and autonomy are becoming increasingly important in cars.

“It seems there will be massive change in that industry,” he said.

Cook also devoted substantial time to sharing his views on privacy versus security.

“I don’t need to know what time you go to bed at night; I don’t want to read your emails; I don’t want to read your texts,” he said. “That’s one of our values as a company.”

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And he disputed the notion of building loopholes into the company’s products that would allow authorities access to customers’ data.

“You can’t have a back door into the software, because you can’t just have a back door for the good guys.”

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