Tim Cook: the iPhone 12 hit the mark in China, heading to India

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and Luca Maestri, financial director of the Californian firm, answered questions from journalists during the classic interview taking place after the publication of the financial results for the last quarter. We havedetailed these results in this article.

Additional information was available during the conference call to supplement the financial statement figures.

The iPhone 12, a surprising success

First of all, Luca Maestri and Tim Cook say to each otherpositively surprisedby iPhone sales. Indeed, the delay in the release of the new models has raised fears of lower revenues than anticipated. But the scores achieved by the new generation of iPhone haveexceeded theforecasts and even made it possible to achieve overall profits that also went beyond Apple's calculations.

The two men specified that sales were mainly carried out byiPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, and that, more generally, all of the new generation models still have interesting room for improvement. Indeed, in many areas of the world, particularly in Europe, 5G is not yet well deployed. And this does not necessarily encourage the renewal of your smartphone for an iPhone number 12, precisely equipped with 5G.

Services in constant progress

As seen in our article on Apple's Q4 2020 financial results, services continue to generate more and more revenue over time.

Luca Maestri and Tim Cook are rightly pleased to have reached the620 million paying subscribers, all services combined. The initial objective was to exceed 600 million before January 2021, the contract is therefore fulfilled. Please note that comparatively, in the 4th quarter of 2019, Apple only had140 million paying subscribers…

Confirmation in China, potential in India

Finally, the conference call also allowed us to see the two senior Apple officials say a little more about the short and long term future.

In the coming months, according to Luca Maestri in particular, Macs could experience great success, on the one hand thanks to the introduction of the new M1 models at the end of 2020, on the other hand thanks to teleworking pushed by the confinement of populations, in place since the end of 2020 in different countries around the world.

Otherwise, while in China, Apple achieved excellent scores, thanks in particular to the new generation of iPhone and the very well-developed 5G network in the country, India constitutes a market with strong potential for the Californian firm. The latter should make efforts to succeed in grabbing market share from its competitors, as it has been able to do in China for several years now.

Here are the main points of this interview between Tim Cook, Luca Maestri and various journalists.You can find it in full here, in English.

Don't missour full report on Apple's Q4 financial results here.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.