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Cook's remarks came at the beginning of a Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium, in which he discussed the forthcoming iPhone and the reasons behind many of the technology choices in the phone/iPod/communicator.

Cook's boss, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, unveiled the iPhone at the beginning of the year, and yesterday Cook echoed Jobs' claim that it will revolutionise the phone market.

'The iPhone is a revolutionary product,' he said. 'Revolutionary products only come along so often: the Mac in 1984 re-invented the computer industry. The iPod in 2001 re-invented the music industry. And we think the iPhone is that class of product for the cell phone industry.'

Not to mention the best iPod Apple has made, and a 'really cool Internet device,' he added.

Cook then reiterated that Apple continues to target sales of 10 million in the first year, despite a price - $499 or $599 - that excludes the vast majority of mobile phone users. He reminded the audience that when the iPod was first introduced in 2001, its $399 price was also deemed too expensive by many a commentator. The price, he said, reflects the value of the device to the user.

'And so, today in the cell phone industry, a lot of people pay zero for the cell phone,' he said. 'Guess why? That's what's it worth! And so, if we offer something that has tremendous value, that is sort of this thing that people didn't have

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in their consciousness - it was not imaginable - then I think there are a whole bunch of people who will pay $499 or $599.'

Turning to the iPhone's technology, Cook said that the first thing that Apple wanted was GSM, for no other reason than it is the world standard. Wifi was a given, so the only question was whether to support 2.5G (Edge) or 3G for mobile net access. Apple picked the former, simply because it is more widely deployed.

The decision to pick Cingular, now part of AT&T, as the sole US carrier followed from the choice of GSM, since that is the basis of Cingular's network. That, plus Cingular's market-leading 61 million subscribers on what Apple believed to be the highest quality service, convinced Apple that the two companies could form 'a really great partnership', Cook explained.

'The deal that we struck allows Apple to do the things that Apple is really good at, and it allows Cingular to do the things that Cingular is really good at,' he said.

Cook concluded the session by addressing whether Apple will be able to meet demand for the iPhone, given problems it has had in the past with ensuring sufficient supply.

'In order to talk about day one demand and whether we have enough product, you have to know demand and you have to know supply,' he said. 'And let me be very frank: I don't know either of them today.'

But, he noted, Apple sold 21 million iPods during the last quarter.

'So we have a reasonable amount of operational expertise on ramping and doing fairly well there,' he said. 'But what the first day is going to be like, I don't know because it's too soon to tell what the demand and supply will look like.'

Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said that Cook's comments emphasised that, 'Apple continues to reinforce its emphasis on and ability to innovate at levels that separate it from other companies.' He agreed with the Apple chief operating officer that the iPhone's features will ensure that it meets Apple's 10 million sales target.