Tim Cook compares Microsoft Surface to a 'flying car'

Apple CEO Tim Cook

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple CEO Tim Cook, speaking during the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call, didn't hesitate to take some shots at Microsoft's Surface tablet, which launched today.

It's a "fairly compromised, confusing product," said Cook, who added that he hasn't used one yet. "One of the toughest things you do with what product to make, is to make hard trade-offs and decide what a product should be, and we've really done that with the iPad, so the user experience is incredible. I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don't think it would do all of those things very well."

Given those comments, Cook not surprisingly said that consumers will chose iPads over competing tablets. "That's what they've done today, and I think they'll continue to do that.

Cook said he sees a big opportunity with tablets, based on the size of the PC market, saying that iPads will be "extremely attractive to people in lieu of PCs." Cook added that he's "very confident with what we have in the pipeline."

Apple sold more than 14 million iPads in the latest quarter, though that was shy of Wall Street estimates.