Apple CEO Tim Cook can’t pronounce Pokémon but he still thinks it's incredible

Tim Cook

(Tim Cook, CEO of AppleAndrew Burton/Getty)

Apple CEO Tim Cook loves Pokemon, even if he has a funny way of pronouncing it.

While taking questions about Apple's quarterly earnings on Tuesday, one analyst asked about Pokémon Go — the mobile gaming phenomenon that some analysts believe could boost Apple's sales by $3 billion per year.

Turns out, Cook thinks it's "incredible" what Pokémon Go has done in the past three weeks, although he called it "Pokee-man."

Many Pokemon players joke that "Pokee-man" is what old people call the game — there's even a Twitter bot that corrects erroneous usage on the internet.

Cook believes that Pokémon Go's success is somewhat of a reflection of Apple's success with its App Store platform, and that it suggests a bright future for augmented reality.

Here's what Cook said (bolded for emphasis):

"In terms of AR and the Pokeman phenomenon, it's incredible what's happened there. I think it's a testament to what happens with innovative apps and the whole ecosystem and the power of a developer being able to press a button and offer their product around the word. This certain developer has elected not to go worldwide yet because of the pressure on their servers. [Laughs.] But I'm sure they will over time. It also does show, as you point out, that AR can be really great. We have been and continue to invest a lot in this, we are high on AR in the long run, we think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity. So we're investing, and the number one thing is that our products work well with other developers' products, like Pokeman, and that's why you see so many iPhones in the wild out there chasing Pokemans.

I know there are people who want to call [AR] a new computing platform and we'll see, I think there's a tendency in this industry to call everything new 'the next computer platform.' However, that said, I do think AR can be huge. So we'll see whether it's the next platform. But regardless, it will be huge."

Sadly, the analyst on the conference call didn't think to follow-up and ask Cook how many Pokemon he's caught while playing the game. Maybe next quarter.

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