Coming off his company's historic quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal that "fewer than 15% of iPhone buyers" were upgrading from other, older iPhones, and that the "majority" of those who switched to iPhone had owned a smartphone running Android.
This past quarter indeed triggered "the mother of all upgrades," which Cook predicted shortly after the iPhone event in September. This is particularly true in China, where Apple reportedly sold more smartphones in the country than any other company in the last quarter, according to research firm Canalys. In the previous quarter, Apple was the No. 6 smartphone maker, and had just 9% market share. Now it has 17% market share in China — nearly double from the last quarter.
Apple is still the most valuable company in the world with an annual revenue of $183 billion. In the last quarter alone, the company's revenue rose 30% and its profit grew 38% to $18 billion. That's the most profit any company has ever achieved in a single quarter in history. And it looks like Apple will be able to sustain this amazing growth.
"We certainly believe there are legs to it," Cook said.
