Tim Cook says Apple now factors Chinese tastes when designing products

Apple now heavily factors in the tastes of Chinese consumers when designing its products, including tailoring colors, CEO Tim Cook revealed in a new interview.

One example was the decision to offer gold versions of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, since gold is a popular color in the region, Cook told the Chinese-language version of Bloomberg Businessweek. He didn't say how else the company might be modifying products to suit China, which during the last quarter accounted for 29 percent of the company's revenue.

The CEO originally made the comments during a tour of the country last month, when he visited Apple's largest store — located in Hangzhou — and visited several schools. At the schools he spoke on the significance of education and said he was happy to see the students were eager to learn.

During the interview, Cook added that Apple is working on over 180 trial programs at local schools, covering areas like teaching music composition through GarageBand or helping hearing-impaired kids to use a phone.

By the end of 2015 Apple is hoping to grow the number of programs by about 50 percent, he said. The goal is allegedly to change traditional educational models and assist students in contributing to society.

In May, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple will be adding a rose gold option for its next flagship iPhone, paralleling one of the metals available for the Apple Watch Edition. Unlike the Watch, though, the new iPhone color will likely just be simulated, since rose gold Watches start at $10,000 and the amount of metal in an iPhone would make the product fantastically expensive. Apple could change the current yellow gold iPhone color (also simulated) to reflect Watch models as well.