Apple’s sapphire facility is for a “secret project”, says Tim Cook

For a split second, AppleAAPL -0.27%’s annual shareholder meeting offered the promise of excitement. In prepared remarks before a question-and-answer session with shareholders, Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company was focused on growth – so much so that he was prepared to take the wraps off some new products. A pregnant pause hung in the air. The audience, accustomed to Apple unveiling new products at carefully orchestrated events, gasped and cheered. But it was too good to be true. “I’m just kidding. I gotta have some fun,” Cook said. He told shareholders that employees are working on great new products, some of which may be viewed as “extensions of what we’re already doing,” while others are “things that you can’t see.”  Maintaining secrecy is important, he said, because talking about the future gives competitors a road map of Apple’s plans and the company is “getting ripped off left, right and sideways.”