“China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will,” Cook said. The report gave no details of when Cook thought China might pass the United States.

"We are growing very fast. We are continuing to invest in retail stores here and will open many more over the next several years. We have some great sites selected, our manufacturing base is here, and we have incredible partners here. So it's a very very important country to us."

Apple now has 11 retail stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hong Kong. The one opened last October in the commercial hub of Wangfujing in Beijing is the largest in Asia.

Cook said Apple would exceed it's plan of having 25 company stores in China, a goal which had been mentioned back in 2010. But it would take time to construct the stores because Apple wants the buildings to be large in order to serve more customers, he said.

Apple has said sales in China more than doubled in 2010 and 2011 though growth has slowed in the past year.

Cook was in Beijing to meet with Chinese regulators and managers of state-owned China Unicom Ltd., the first Chinese carrier to support Apple’s iPhone. The company has been in talks previously with China Mobile about selling the iPhone. The carrier has more than 700 million customers, and without China Mobile, Apple's growth in the country has been constrained.