What you need to know
- CNBC interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook after its Q3 earnings call.
- Cook talked about the company's acquisition strategy in comparison to others.
- He also talked about the company's performance for the last quarter.
In an interview with CNBC today, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about Apple's acquisition strategy, it's Q3 performance, and the effect of working from home on the Mac and the iPad.
When asked about this week's antitrust hearing, Cook pointed to the fact that, while other companies seem to make acquisitions in order to stifle competitors, Apple does so to bring new features to its devices.
"If you look at the things behind the investigation, the things are acquisitions, and if you noticed, we didn't get any questions on acquisitions because our approach on acquisitions has been to buy companies where we have challenges, and IP, and then make them a feature of the phone."
Cook also answered questions around the company's financial performance for its third quarter this year, which set multiple records. Cook attributes the success to the successful launch of the iPhone SE and the continued success of the iPhone 11.
"iPhone 11 is the most popular iPhone, and we had a great launch of iPhone SE during the quarter. It was also very strong ... We had a very nice uptick on a year-over-year basis in (phone) switchers that we were happy to see. And the iPhone SE is clearly helping with that."
He also pointed to a major boost in iPad and Mac sales, both of which he says is due to the rise of working and learning from home.
"It definitely has boosted Mac and iPad. We see both of those likely picking up share ... and we've won several school bigs for iPad...we have the strongest product lineup in both Mac and iPad that we've ever had. It's the combination of those two things coming together, at the same time, that are producing those results."
Cook also mentioned that reopening its retail stores, especially in China, helped to boost its financial performance last quarter.
"They did grow 2% in real dollars, but, on a constant currency basis, they actually grew 6%. So we definitely saw China sort of come back...a big increase from where it was in the quarter before ... I think getting the stores open again (in China) was key ... We now have about 75% of our stores open in the world."
You can check out the video version of the interview at CNBC.
