14 DAY TRIAL // Apple reported 37 million iPhones shipped last quarter, when the company posted record revenue of $46.33 billion, and record net profit of $13.06 billion. Tim Cook, the company's CEO, thinks the numbers are “decent.”
Discussing Apple’s enormous growth in the smartphone segment, Cook admitted that “37 million is a big number.”
“It was a decent quarter,” he then told Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope during the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference yesterday.
“It was 17 million more than we'd ever done before. We were pretty happy with that, but let me give you the way I look at the numbers,” he said.
Before we continue to quote Cook as he enthusiastically delves into one of his favorite subjects, readers should know a little bit about the man’s background.
One important aspect of his carrier within Apple is that Cook pulled the Cupertino giant out of manufacturing by closing factories and warehouses around the world.
This helped the company reduce inventory levels and streamline its supply chain, which dramatically increased margins. This was before January 2007, when Cook was promoted to the position of Chief Operating Officer.
Cook, now Apple's Chief Executive Officer, is an operational whiz who is well aware that only the big picture will tell you where the big profits are.
With that out of the way, here’s what he had to say about Apple pursuing a business model that’s going to yield more-than-decent profits, hopefully:
“As I see it, that 37 million for last quarter represented 24% of the smartphone market. There's 3 out of 4 people buying something else. 9 out of 10 phone buyers are buying something else.”
“Handset market is projected to go from 1.5 to 2 billion units,” he told Shope. “Take it in the context of these numbers, the truth is that this is a jaw-dropping industry with enormous opportunity.”
“Up against those numbers, the numbers don't seem so large anymore. What seems so large to me is the opportunity,” he clarified as Apple investors listened carefully to the CEO’s speech.
Cook stressed that Apple is “laser-focused [on] making the world's best products.”
“[If] continue to develop the ecosystem around the iPhone […] we have a pretty good opportunity to take advantage of this enormous market,” he concluded.