During an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium, Apple COO Tim Cook spoke about the iPod and iPhone, and calmed investors by stating that the company is on track for its goal of ten million units sold by the end of the year. “We are right on track for where we want to be,” Cook said.
“The four million units we’ve sold over the first 200 days gives us confidence that we can achieve ten million units in 2008.” Describing the iPhone as more of a platform than a device, Cook said that post-SDK, developers would “only be limited by [their] imagination.” Cook also defended Apple’s decision to go with an exclusive carrier, revenue-sharing model for the initial iPhone rollouts, but added that the company is “not married to any business model.”
Regarding iPods, the Apple executive said that weaker-than-expected fourth quarter iPod unit sales numbers might be attributable to the iPod shuffle, which fell 17 percent year-over-year in unit sales globally, and even more than that in the US. Cook said that Apple wasn’t seeing signs of iPod market saturation, adding that 40 percent of iPods sold last quarter were purchased by first-time iPod owners.
Finally, Cook admitted that although the iPod touch might have cannibalized some iPhone sales, he’d rather Apple cannibalize Apple than an outsider, adding that the launch was “very successful.” An audio webcast of the event is available from apple.com/investor.
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