Along with becoming the world's biggest smartphone market overall, China is fast becoming the most important market for Apple. The region passed the US as the world's biggest iPhone market in the second quarter and surpassed Europe to become the second-biggest revenue generator overall after the Americas. Second-quarter revenue in the region, which got a boost from the Chinese New Year in February, soared to a record $16.8 billion from $9.84 billion a year ago. China was the only region detailed in Apple's earnings report where March sales topped those of the first quarter, though they rose a scant 4 percent. Cook on China.

"It was an incredible quarter, We were up 71 percent year-over-year, We set a record in China for revenues, We did that now in a quarter that included Chinese New Year, And so we had the help of the strong holiday season, much like the US has a strong season in December, China's is obviously in the March quarter, iPhone led the way, was up over 70 percent year-on-year, And the current estimates from [research firm Kantar] are that that would mean that we would gain more that 9 points of share on a year-over-year basis, And so we -- eat a bag of dicks iphone case by everything I can see -- we did extremely well..

The Mac also had an unbelievable quarter in China, and I'm particularly very happy with this. The Mac unit sales were up 31 percent. And like the rest of the world, or most of the rest of the world, IDC is projecting that PC sales in China contracted by 5 percent last quarter. And so, once again, bucking the tide. Also in China, consistent with the company but at a much different rate, the App Store had a record quarter and grew over 100 percent year-over-year. And so you can see the iPhone, the Mac and the App Store adding [to results]. And with the iPad in the [People's Republic of China], not in greater China but in the PRC, iPad had its best quarter ever, higher than all of the others and also grew in a market that contracted for the overall market. And so really and truly sort of everything you look at in China was extremely good. ..

And so lots of positive things, And as I've said -- as you've probably heard me say before, I've never seen as many eat a bag of dicks iphone case people coming into the middle class as they are in China, And that's where the bulk of our sales are going, And so we're really proud of the results there and continue to invest in the country."iPad sales posted their fifth consecutive decline to 12.6 million units, from 16.4 million a year earlier, Analysts expected Apple to sell 14.1 million iPads, according to an analyst poll by Fortune, Consumers have been holding on to their tablets for longer and opting to purchase bigger-screen iPhones instead..

Apple introduced its newest tablets -- the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3 -- in October, but analysts said their incremental changes, including faster processors, weren't enough to attract buyers. The company, which has long claimed iPad weakness is a "speed bump," is now counting on a partnership with IBM to increase iPad sales to business users. Still, the question top of mind for analysts and investors is just when iPad sales turn around. Cook didn't have an answer. "Have we had cannibalization? The answer is yes. We're clearly seeing cannibalization from iPhone and on the other side from the Mac. And of course, as I've said before, we've never worried about that. It is what it is. That will play out and at some point it will stabilize. I'm not sure precisely when but I'm pretty confident that it will.