This is Tim: Cook on Apple's fourth-quarter earnings, the iPad mini, and more

26.10.2012

In terms of iPad and iPhone, I don't see a component shortage gating us for the quarter in the numbers that we've given you in the guidance. I think we've solved some challenges there and feel good about our position. In terms of general shortages, on the iMac we'll be constrained for the full quarter in a significant way. Part of that is that we're beginning shipping the 21-inch iMac in November and the 27-inch in December, and so there will be a short amount of time during the quarter to manufacture and ramp those and I expect the demand to be robust. We will have a significant shortage there; the others are more based on how big is "big" from a demand point of view, and that is very difficult to predict. But you can tell that we're extremely bullish on the demand with the revenue guidance that Peter talked about earlier.

We've seen low-cost challengers before, and iPad continues to beat every other tablet on the market at any price. We think customers are very smart, we think they have very high expectations, we think that they want a device that can do more, and we're confident that our focus on making the best product is what will win at the end of the day and we will stay true to that.

I would not say that there's been a significant change in our supplier partners. There's always some change, obviously, but I wouldn't describe any change as significant, and there hasn't been a change that would have driven more cost. We continue to be a customer of Samsung, and continue to have a commercial relationship.