"We remain really confident about our plans and are very excited about our opportunity in China," Cook said.

Apple has previously said China has become the company's second largest market after the U.S. Reflecting the country's growing importance, Apple announced several China-specific additions to its products in June, including Mandarin language support for Siri, and allowing new versions of its operating systems to easily connect with popular social networking and Internet services in the country.

Previous Apple product launches in the country have created massive lines outside company stores. But for last week's new iPad launch, Apple used instead a new to avoid the skirmishes that have occurred at previous launches. New iPad sales in the country, however, could lag behind the sales of the iPad 2, given the late launch, according to analysts.