Addressing a conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs Group in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about the allegations of deplorable working conditions in the factories which manufacture Apple products, and also about the Apple's "great products" as well as the triviality of the low-cost tablet computers.

During the course of his short `State of the Apple' address at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Cook said that Apple consider working conditions a serious issue and is pressuring its suppliers, particularly in China, to ensure that they meet stringent standards or else they may risk losing business.

Reiterating a claim which Apple has been repeatedly making of late, Cook said that his company believes that "every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely."

Talking about the growth of Apple, which reported a $13.06 billion net profit for the 2011 fourth quarter, Cook said that under the company's co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs, Apple had made a notable expansion from personal computers to other ground-breaking arenas like the iPhone handset and the iPad tablet.

Noting that his key objective was to maintain Apple's focus on a select number of "great products", and on the culture which Jobs instilled in the company before his death in October, Cook said: "Apple is this unique company. "I'm not going to witness or permit the slow undoing of it, because I believe in it so deeply."