Apple CEO Tim Cook on Growth, Emerging Markets, Bigger iPhones, New Products

Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for an interview with the Journal’s Daisuke Wakabayashi and offered his thoughts on the company's growth, emerging markets, bigger iPhones, and more.

When asked about the concern that Apple is no longer a growth company, Cook noted that when the company previously went from $65 billion to over $100 billion to $150 billion to $170 billion, during a state of hyper-growth.

"So when you say $14 billion to $15 billion compared to those numbers, it’s clearly smaller and a smaller percentage, but, to put it in some context, that’s like adding three Fortune 500 companies in a year. I think that’s hard to say that’s not a growth company."


On emerging markets Cook said that there is still a lot of potential for growth with Apple adding on 50 new carriers this quarter alone.

"The China Mobile roll-out of LTE (fourth-generation wireless) takes place over a year. And even with adding China Mobile, we still only present our products to two-thirds of the subscribers in the world. In fact, this quarter, we’ll sign on 50 new carriers."

Wakabayashi also questioned Cook on a bigger iPhone.

"What we’ve said is that until the technology is ready, we don’t want to cross that line. That doesn’t say we’ll never do it. We want to give our customers what’s right in all respects – not just the size but in the resolution, in the clarity, in the contrast, in the reliability. There are many different parameters to measure a display and we care about all those, because we know that’s the window to the software."


In regards to new products, Cook confirmed that Apple will be entering new categories.

"There will be new categories and we’re working on some great stuff. We’re not ready to talk about it. We’re really working on some really great stuff. I think no one reasonable would say they’re not a new category."

Cook also said he doesn't think the company hit a ceiling on its existing products like the iPhone. More details in the full interview linked below...

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