Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) falling share price has been alarming fact for its shareholders and has been put under many a magnifying glass over the last few months. On Wednesday, at the company’s annual meeting, chief executive Tim Cook gave the insider’s perspective on it.  Cook said that while he understood why shareholders would be disappointed by the 36-percent drop since mid-September, a focus on the longer term may help ease concerns.

“I don’t like it either,” Cook said about the share price drop. “The board doesn’t like it. The management team doesn’t like it. But we’re focused on the longer term.”

He added that the company had seen an “incredible year of innovation” in 2012, while growing by “about $48 billion more” than Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY), and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) combined…

Cook added that the company was working on new product categories, but did not elaborate. “We invest in things we think are great to do,” he said, adding that the company only released products “deliberately and thoughtfully.”

There was hardly any discussion on the company’s capital allocation policies, though Cook said Apple was in “very, very active discussions” about returning cash to shareholders. The chief executive, sometimes criticized for the direction he has taken Apple in since taking over from late co-founder Steve Jobs in August 2011, also enjoyed a 99.1 percent approval rating as the company’s complete board was reelected on Wednesday.

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