Following Mizuho's Surprising Apple Downgrade, Looking Back At Tim Cook's Comments On China

Mizuho's Abhey Lamba's downgrade of Apple Inc. AAPL was party based on the belief that contributions from the key Chinese market will fall short of expectations over time. But what does Apple's CEO Tim Cook have to say about its prospects in China?

Speaking to Bloomberg Television's Emily Chang in early June, Cook explained that Apple's prospects in China is rooted in the company's long-term operations. While this may imply some volatility in quarter-to-quarter operations, the Chinese market boasts many "mega-trends," which makes the country an "incredible market."

"The short-term economic moves up and down, I don't get too excited about," Cook said. "I think I did say last quarter that we will do better this quarter than we have over the last several. That doesn't mean we are growing double digits or that we will grow — it means it will be better on a year-over-year comp."

China shouldn't also just be viewed as a large country to sell billions of dollars of products to, Cook emphasized. He noted that Apple currently has close to 2 million application developers in the country, which also makes it an "incredible market place for talent."

In the meantime, Cook is more than happy with the iPhone 7 being ranked the most popular smartphone in China and the iPhone 7-Plus ranking as the third most popular device.

"China is a huge opportunity over time," Cook concluded on the topic.