Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference for the second year in a row. Cook spoke a year ago at the conference and made a number of interesting statements about the tablet market, Apple’s growth and its worker responsibility policies.
Apple will present the event live, via an audio-only stream.
One of the big questions related to the iPhone posed at last year’s conference was whether Cook felt that the iPhone would succumb to the ‘law of large numbers’, meaning that perhaps the market for the product would diminish. Cook addressed offering these devices in areas like China, Brazil and other locations where the subsidy model simply didn’t work.
“We want to focus on…making the world’s best product…the paramount thing is the product, it is the focus,” said Cook.
Recent rumors have placed a ‘more affordable’ iPhone on Apple’s list of possible upcoming products. A product like this would alleviate the low-end pressures in areas where subsidy was not viable.
Cook also said that the iPhone and iPad were creating a ‘halo effect’ in both developing and emerging markets, quoting the fact that the market for Macs grew 100% in China and 10x over the rest of the market there. Cook cited the growth of the Mac revenue from $1.2B in sales in China and other emerging markets pre-iPhone launch to $13B last year.
This year, Apple’s growth in China was so large that it separated the region into its own reporting segment in its first quarter reports.
Cook will speak at the tech conference tomorrow, February 12th at 7:15 am PST/10:15 am EST and there will be a live webcast provided. Interestingly, Barron’s notes that Cook was originally scheduled to speak after the markets closed at 1:15, but will now speak just after they open.
Read our coverage of last year’s talk: A passionate Tim Cook demonstrates why he’s the right product man for Apple
Image Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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