Apple will start selling the iPhone on China Mobile this Friday.

It’s a big deal for both Apple and China Mobile, which is the world’s largest carrier by a long shot.

As part of the run up to the release, Apple CEO Tim Cook is in China doing interviews.

In his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cook reiterated his vision for the iPhone/iPad business, and rebutted claims that the company is getting smoked in China.

It’s a pretty incredible response, worth reading in its entirety.

Here’s Cook:

Many many things can change but the North Star should be clear, and for Apple that’s always been making the best products in the world. That’s our strategy and that’s not changing today or tomorrow or the next day or the next year. When you really back up and look at what’s happening in China the usage numbers are staggering. 50-seven per cent of the mobile browsing in China is done on iOS devices. Now there are many different views of unit market share and you can choose to look at whichever one you think is most reputable, but for us that is not our North Star, we don’t get up in the morning saying we want to sell the most, we get up saying we want to make and create the best, and so that’s our strategy and it doesn’t change.

He also revealed, “that last quarter we sold more iPhones in Greater China than at any time in our past.” He attributed the strong sales to getting the newest iPhone sold in China sooner than in the past.

Apple has been bashed over the head time and time again about whiffing in China. It started as a bright spot for the company, but lately market share numbers say it’s getting smoked.

Cook’s comment that iOS is winning in terms of usage is pretty interesting, though we’re not sure where he gets the data from.

What Cook is saying here is that iPhones are still doing well in China because they’re the phones that are being used. Without usage, the market share thing is less of a worry.

Read the whole WSJ interview here >

Business Insider Emails & Alerts Site highlights each day to your inbox. Email Address Join

Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.