Tim Cook confirms sapphire Mesa plant, dodges questions on iTV, iWatch

Tim Cook ABC intervew (teaser 003)

As we told you yesterday, ABC News will broadcast a rare interview with CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives this evening. And as Apple celebrates the Mac’s 30th anniversary with a nice interactive timeline and video on Apple.com, the ABC interview is expected to offer some insight into the company’s culture of secrecy, the Mac’s importance to Apple’s bottom line and more.

An excerpt from the interview was played Friday morning on Good Morning America, offering a taste of the full interview scheduled to be aired later today at 6:30PM EST on World News with Diane Sawyer

ABC’s David Muir sat down with Apple’s boss Tim Cook, software head Craig Federighi and software technology boss Bud Tribble inside Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

I like this bit on secrecy:

Yes, there are black drapes, and numerous locked doors, and many other things. Your badge probably wouldn’t work in those rooms, he told Muir.

We learned that Cook wakes up at 3:45am (he gets a head start on East Coast rivals) to about 800 emails from customers.

He’s officially confirmed that Apple’s new plant in Mesa, Arizona will indeed be producing sapphire crystal glass components for products, though he wouldn’t elaborate further.

Oh, and Apple may consider assembling more products in the United States – Apple can “do more” on that front, he teased.

Currently, the Mac Pro’s cylindrically-shaped enclosure is being manufactured in a $100 million Texas facility, where the rest of the computer is being assembled as well.

Here, check out an excerpt from the upcoming full video interview.

What’s up with Muir breaking revelation that the Mac Pros are being made in Austin? We knew that months ago – some hard-hitting journalism there!

The usual attempts to squeeze out any information concerning unreleased and unannounced products like a rumored standalone television set or a wearable iWatch device yielded no results.

Heck, Apple wouldn’t even comment on yesterday’s story claiming that downloadable games and full-on support for wireless controllers is coming to Apple TV boxes via a firmware update.

iTV, you say?

Apple is “making a ring” instead, Cook joked.

The joke’s on Brian White, actually.