Bloomberg Businessweek published a joint interview with Apple's leadership including CEO Tim Cook, head of design Jony Ive and software chief Craig Federighi today. The three sat down for an extensive Q&A on a number of different topics, one of which was Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business.

 "Everybody is trying to adopt Apple's strategy," said Tim Cook with regards to Microsoft. "We're not looking for external validation of our strategy, but I think it does suggest that there's a lot of copying, kind of, on the strategy and that people have recognized that importance."

Just two weeks ago, Microsoft purchased Nokia's devices and services unit, pending outstanding approval. The deal brought the Lumia lineup of devices under the Microsoft umbrella at a price of around €3.79 billion plus €1.65 billion in patent licenses.

Cook went on to talk about how he feels the industry should pay close attention to what is happening to Nokia, saying that he thinks the company serves as a perfect example "to everyone in business that you have to keep innovating and that to not innovate is to die."

Although Nokia has never really been criticized for its hardware innovation, its software business struggled to keep up with emerging technologies. There was a point not so long ago when the company had a very firm grasp as leader in global marketshare, but it just couldn't keep up with the iPhone and Android.