Apple iPad will cannibalise Microsoft PCs, claims Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook was understandably chirpy during the quarterly results earning call after his firm posted record revenues.

Cook answered a variety of questions ranging from the subject of PC market cannibalisation to reasons why Mac sales were down by $1 million year-on-year. We take a look at some of the highlights.

Tablets are gunning for the PC

Apple confirmed it is selling an average of 1.7 million iPads per week. The firm sold a total of 22.9 million tablets in the last quarter, compared to 15.4 million a year ago.

Cook is confident that tablet sales will eventually be larger than the PC market and claims that Apple does not fear cannibalisation, but sees it as a huge opportunity for the firm.

"On iPad in particular, we have the mother of all opportunities here, because the Windows market is much, much larger than the Mac market is. And I think it is clear that it's already cannibalising some and I think there is a tremendous amount of opportunity there," he said during the conference call.

"And as you know, I have said for two or three years now, I believe the tablet market will be larger than the PC market at some point. And I still believe that."

Are we going to see cheaper iPhones?

Apple VP Phil Schiller was reportedly misquoted as saying the firm would not launch a budget iPhone a couple of weeks ago.

Cook expertly dodged a question by a Deutshe Bank analyst Chris Whitmore about the introduction of cut-priced devices.

"I am not going to go into our pricing strategy, but we feel great about the opportunity of getting products to customers and a percentage of those buying other Apple products," Cook said.

The fact that Cook didn't take this opportunity to dismiss the introduction of a cut-price device outright suggests they could be in the pipeline. With reports claiming Apple is gearing up to launch its next range of smartphones in the Spring, we won't have long to find out.

What's the latest on Apple Maps?

The controversy surrounding Apple Maps seems to have died down as engineers have worked hard to address numerous flaws in the software.

Cook confirmed that Apple will continue to roll out even more improvements during 2013.

"We are going to keep working on this as I have said before until it lives up to our incredibly high standards. Users can already see many of these improvements because they include things like improved satellite and improved imagery and improved categorisation, improved local information for 1000s of businesses and so forth."

Apple TV remains an areas of intense interest

There have been numerous reports that Apple is set to launch some form of interactive TV this year. The firm already offers its Apple TV hardware, which is designed to stream content from iTunes and mirror multimedia from devices such as tablets and smartphones.

"I have said in the past this is an area of intense interest for us and it remains that and I tend to believe that there is a lot we can contribute in this space and so we continue to pull the string and see where it leads us, but I don't want to be more specific," the CEO said.