Apple is the new media.

It was not noticed by many, but Tim Cook ended his quarterly earnings conference call with the ultimate tease. He commented that Apple is at the forefront of a new media and it is positioned to be the leader in this new movement. The call ended abruptly and the audio conference attendees were not able to ask Cook what he meant.

It was a passing comment by Cook as the audio ended. I have not read any explanations of what Cook meant and I bet he is smiling to himself for sliding that powerful thought by the usual adept listeners. Me? I have lost sleep thinking about it. A new media? hmm? What could Cook mean?

To the point, with a few hundred million iPhones in the hands of people all over the world, we may not need the usual news filters to report what they deem important. The Associated Press, as well as other national news agencies, has been and still is a primary news filters. They report on and tell us what they think is important. It has worked for a long time. We could not all be in every country. But the iPhone has made every owner a potential news gatherer and content reporter.

The Internet is the distribution media for these new content providers. The iWatch has a role too. The economic need to build a large global organization to gather and necessarily filter information is being supplanted by a lower cost method - people with iPhones. Take a video or a picture with your smart device and post it to the Internet for all to see. And that is the new media that Apple is creating. The impact is startling as real time reporting by real people takes over.

Of course, the AP will be around for awhile. In the long run, however, who wants to work for the AP or any global news agency when you and 6 of your buddies with an iPhone and an Internet connection are a news agency? And you have no corporate executives to tell you what to delete.

News - of the people, by the people and for the people. Cook has a view from the top of a world that only a few have and his view is more than just a fleeting opinion.