Tim Cook says Apple's iPhone X sales were a Super Bowl victory - even if you wanted the team to win by 'a few more points'

• Apple's new iPhone X outsold other iPhone models in the company's latest quarter.
• The new model was the best selling model every week in the quarter, company CEO Tim Cook said.
• The results should be a relief for investors and analysts who have been worried about how well the pricey new model is selling.

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Apple's new iPhone X may not be a blockbuster hit, but it isn't doing half-bad.

Despite having a starting price of $1,000, the phone outsold Apple's other iPhone models in the company's second fiscal quarter, CEO Tim Cook said in Apple's earnings statement on Tuesday. In fact, the iPhone X was the company's top-selling smartphone model every week in the period, just as it was after it launched last fall, Cook said.

"Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone," he said.

Cook did not specify how many actual iPhone X units the company sold, but his comments may assuage some investor worries.

Just how well the new iPhone model has been selling has been of intense concern to investors and analysts. Smartphone sales account for more than 60% of Apple's revenue. When it launched, the iPhone X, which features a facial-recognition system to unlock the device and a screen that covers nearly its entire front, was the company's first all-new smartphone in four years.

If a team wins the Super Bowl, the score doesn't matter

But the iPhone X was released alongside two other brand new iPhone models: the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. The decision to release three new iPhone models at once, along with the X's steep price, raised fears that consumers might not opt for Apple's top-of-the-line iPhone.

Cook touted the iPhone X's outperformance during the quarter as a major accomplishment in its own right, even as some analysts sought more details.

"The team wins the Super Bowl, you want them to win by a few more points, but it's a Super Bowl winner. And it's how we feel about it," Cook said in response to an analyst question about the X sales.

Overall, Apple's smartphone business performed modestly well in the second quarter. The company sold 52.2 million iPhones in the period, which was up 3% from the same quarter last year. Its phone business brought in $38 billion in revenue, which was up 14% from the year before.

Sales dollars likely outpaced unit sales because of the iPhone X's premium price. Previously, new iPhone models started at around $650.

Apple's second-quarter sales and earnings topped Wall Street's expectations.

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