Tim Cook calls on Italian innovators to help shape the future

Writing in an Italian magazine, Tim Cook has urged local developers to "take advantage of your skills," and join Apple in building the future.

As Italy fines Apple over alleged price fixing, and the company improves Apple Maps in the region, Tim Cook has penned an article for Corriere della Sera. The 145-year-old newspaper has launched a new Login magazine, headlining Cook's call to Italian innovators.

"With access to the right tools, everyone has potential to be realized," writes Cook (in translation.) "Italy is a place of great creativity and passion: take advantage of your skills."

The full piece sees Cook touch on Apple's history, with its first office opening there "nearly forty years ago." At that point, he says, the world was on the eve of momentous change, ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the rise of the internet.

"I believe that today we are once again facing a crucial moment in history," he continues. "As the world emerges from a pandemic that has taken so much away from us in the last two years, we have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future we want to live in."

"The decisions we make today about how to rebuild and where to focus our resources will leave their mark for many decades to come," says Cook. "And while technology will clearly have a profound influence on the future we build... its impact will depend on the values and intentions we place at the heart of our innovations."

Cook says that Apple "is committed to building an ecosystem of innovation," in which "people have the ability to develop their biggest ideas to improve our lives."

He says that this is why Apple created an Apple Developer Academy, in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II, in 2016. The academy has seen hundreds of students "start career paths in the burgeoning app economy."

"At Apple, we will continue to be guided by our values as we use technology to change the world for the better," concludes Cook. "I hope that innovators from all over Italy will want to join us in this challenge."