Tim Cook on cheaper iPhones: We’ve done it before (with iPod)

Tim Cook is pretty happy with Apple’s first quarter numbers for 2013, saying that “no technology company has ever reported results like these.” And with record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, you can understand why.

But yesterday is less interesting to investors than tomorrow, which is why Apple’s stock price is down, and one of the analysts on the call asked the Apple chief exec about market share and cheaper iPhones. That’s been a big concern lately, as most of the growth in mobile phones is in markets like Asia and Africa, which are much more price-sensitive than the U.S. or Europe.

“The most important thing for Apple is to make products that impact people’s lives,” Cook answered. “We don’t seek revenue for revenue’s sake.”

Those would not have been comforting words to investors who are looking for Apple to expand its market share by offering products that appear to a wider range of customers. But Cook did offer a ray of hope.

“We’ve had a great track record on iPod of offering different products at different price points,” Cook added.

That might be a hint that Apple will offer iPhones at differing price points, beyond the current strategy of offering old models at reduced rates. The iPod, of course, is available in the top-of-the-line iPod Touch, the still-existing Classic, and the cheap Nano and cheaper Shuffle.

But don’t hope for too much. Then Cook added, for emphasis:

“But our top priority is making a great product that enriches people’s lives.”