By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

    Acting CEO Tim Cook handled the bulk of the questions from analysts in Apple’s (AAPL) second-quarter earnings call Wednesday, and he seized the opportunity — in Steve Jobs’ absence — to wave the company’s flag.

    Five key quotes:

    On Apple’s shrinking market share: “Yes we do care about market share, but cycles come and cycles go, and what we care about is making the best computers in the world, not making the most. We believe that if we do that over the long term, that we will gain share.”

    On netbooks: “For us it’s about doing great products. When I look at what is being sold I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, small screens. Just not something we would put the Mac brand on. So it is not a space as it exists today that we are interested in.”

    On leaving AT&T for Verizon: “We view AT&T as a very good partner. We have no plan to change it. Verizon is on CDMA, and we wanted one phone for the whole world.”

    On China: “We now have three of the four BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] countries. We would like to be in China within the next year, but have nothing to announce today.”

    On the Palm pre and Apple’s intellectual property: “We think competition is great as long as companies invent their own stuff.”