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Tim Cook to Apple Employees in New Video: 'At Apple, We Do the Right Thing'
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macrumors 65816
Welcome to the strange world of the American corporation. There is nothing unique to Apple about the language used by Tim. I doubt there is a single, listed US company that doesn't put its staff through annual refresher courses in security, privacy and ethical business conduct. Personally, I like it (and the Federal big stick that inspires it) - it's a reminder the corporation is not above the law.
Oh, missed that part. Gotta go with Gnasher on this one. Tim Cook may be cheesy and, regrettably, dimwitted as a speaker, but he's not offensive in saying "As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, the time is always right to do what's right." What, like Dr. King didn't want anyone to know about that quote?
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Why is anti-social a disorder? Most of the parties and social downtown life that I've seen that can be considered "social" events end up with drunks, drug users, fights, cheating spouses and partners, drunk driving, filth, public urination etc.
Seem to me anti-social is not the one with the disorder.
Because everything is a disorder. You do something wrong, blame your genes or the school bully.
Apple Business Conduct Policy PDF
If Apple wants people to read it, then it should be rewritten. It's Valium in corporate prose.
If Apple wants people to read it, then it should be rewritten. It's Valium in corporate prose.
I do have a question for Tim:
Seems as if the complaints about display qualities and defective screens are widespread in ipads, imacs, and retina macbook pros. If it was just one product line I could say maybe it was just that, but it's been multiple product lines, and multiple generations of the same product line (rmbp's).
Consumers may be picky about the screens, but Apple engineers would probably be pickier. They're the ones who design the things, have to work them, tweak them, test them, etc.
So therefore, if Apple is indeed purposefully looking the other way in terms of QC of its products, while still charging premium prices, or if it's destroyed its relationship with so many suppliers and manufacturers that it can no longer get quality components, then that is NOT doing the right thing, and it comes very close to, yes, that word Apple fans love to use on google: "evil."
So I hope these suspicions are incorrect and Apple is as vigorous as ever in QC and making sure every consumer product is as close to perfect as can be.
Seems as if the complaints about display qualities and defective screens are widespread in ipads, imacs, and retina macbook pros. If it was just one product line I could say maybe it was just that, but it's been multiple product lines, and multiple generations of the same product line (rmbp's).
Consumers may be picky about the screens, but Apple engineers would probably be pickier. They're the ones who design the things, have to work them, tweak them, test them, etc.
So therefore, if Apple is indeed purposefully looking the other way in terms of QC of its products, while still charging premium prices, or if it's destroyed its relationship with so many suppliers and manufacturers that it can no longer get quality components, then that is NOT doing the right thing, and it comes very close to, yes, that word Apple fans love to use on google: "evil."
So I hope these suspicions are incorrect and Apple is as vigorous as ever in QC and making sure every consumer product is as close to perfect as can be.
henriqueb,
A couple corrections and maybe an explanation:
1 - Last I checked, Apple is NOT selling the 5s and 5c in Brazil:
http://store.apple.com/br/iphone
It would be good to get a source for your pricing.
If resellers/dealers, they may just be applying the old rule of offer and demand, which would make the 5s way more expensive (since harder to get and in higher demand).
2 - The 5s 16GB and 5c 32GB do not COST the same.
They may be PRICED the same in the US, but their costs are different.
And since Brazil is a country of very high import taxes, and the taxes being calculated on an "import value" (not a sales price) basis, I would venture that because the COST of a 5s 16GB is higher than the cost of a 5c 32GB, the taxes are higher, thus the final PRICE is higher.
Sources: http://www.tuaw.com/2013/09/24/ihs-iphone-5s-component-tally-reaches-199-iphone-5c-costs-17/
"The import duty and taxes payable are calculated on the complete shipping value, which includes the cost of the imported goods, the cost of freight, and the cost of insurance. " http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_center/Import-duty-taxes-when-importing-into-Brazil/
I know it won't quell your frustration of not being able to afford any of the two, but I hope for you that once the products are widely available and even manufactured in Brazil, you might see the price go down. After all, history shows that Apple does sometimes reduce prices in that country:
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/01/apple-slashes-prices-on-iphone-44s-by-15-25-in-brazil/
Of course as soon as I wrote the above, the 5s and 5c became available on the Brazilian Apple Store
the products that they are producing are 'designed in california' by engineers working here. they are making their money selling the products that are based on their intellectual property. just ask samsung how much apple values its intellectual property. the people that facilitated those creations are enjoying the benefits of the united states. seems to me that there should be some obligation towards bringing that money back. the fact that they have to go through so many shenanigans to minimize their taxes here and elsewhere seems to me to be less than ideally ethical.
further, there is the recent story of them reclassifying their new facility in arizona as international for tax purposes (I'm not an expert on all of the details, sorry if I get some specifics wrong). now this is an american company (aapl) doing work on american soil (mesa, arizona) with presumably american workers building products and technologies (sapphire screens) that will presumably be solid in the united states yet they lobbied for a tax break by somehow arguing that they were international. how is this? the justification for the decision is that what corporate taxes the local government loses from the international reclassification will be more than made up for by the personal taxes on the influx of people and work that this new facility will bring. but the flaw in that argument is that those benefits would be realized regardless of the tax breaks aapl sees. the only caveat is that without those tax benefits for aapl, they would threaten not to open the facility there (and likely follow through on the threat, and go find someone else who will give them the tax benefits). so not only is aapl using its position as a large corporation to threaten the local government, they are also leaving their employees to pay all the tax burden. again, seems less than ideally ethical. of course you can point to the fact that without the jobs the works wouldn't even have an income to pay tax on which is true and valid, but I am just saying that aapl's position seems less than ethical as they could (and I believe should) both pay the full corporate tax and still open the facility.
the flaw in that logic is that the people doing the work were living here when they did do the work. the HQ was here. if they are not happy with it then, going forward, they can move, but will all of the people move? maybe some. almost certainly not all. either way, the past work was done here and should be recognized as such up until the point that they are no longer here. and what about the infrastructure? they have a nice facility here. will they be able to build that elsewhere? how long will it take? further, once they move they will have to pay import taxes when they bring their products back here. will customers be willing to pay the higher prices associated or will they start looking at alternatives? it just isn't as easy booking a flight to the caribbean and opening shop.
they are not paying all of their taxes to the united states, they are just paying the corporate repatriation tax. now you can argue that the details of that tax are not appropriate or other reasons why that tax is bad (and I have nothing to say about that. I am an engineer not a businessman or a politician and have no understanding of the implications of the tax law) but it is the current way things are done. is this an ethical concern? depends on your definition of ethics and so it might not apply in Tim's mind to his little announcement that he made.
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So America prefers antisocial people to run society, followed by their telling everyone that nobody has manners, forgiveness, or other ethical or evolved qualities... even media articles have championed slimy behavior. Media articles that support offshoring jobs to communist countries while trying to tell us they are not...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/10/10/steve-jobs-was-a-jerk-good-for-him/
Or the iPhone 4 antenna that Steve Jobs knew about long before it was released, and how he reacted to customers. I'm amazed Apple got away with such depravity.
Or the 2011 Macbooks locking up problem, of which a couple of 100+ page posts can even be found on Apple's website...
Google "apple employee corporate culture".
Or if you're anti-anyonethatisntapple:
http://www.businessinsider.com/what...e-companys-internal-corporate-culture-2013-10
Every corporation does the same thing, falters, then demands a bailout - by the people of the country who no longer have the jobs to pay the bulk of the taxes to subsidize the bailout (never mind the corporate welfare they've enjoyed long before their pseudomonopolistic plea of "too big to fail"...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMn2OJmx3w&feature=related
What else is new?
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
Why is anti-social a disorder? Most of the parties and social downtown life that I've seen that can be considered "social" events end up with drunks, drug users, fights, cheating spouses and partners, drunk driving, filth, public urination etc.
Seem to me anti-social is not the one with the disorder.
All of that behavior you described is anti-social. When I say Steve Jobs was anti-social, I mean how he would speed in cars without license plates. How he would scream at people in profanities in a professional work place. How flippant he was to customers with legitimate grievances. How he created a culture at Apple based on secrecy and lies. He flew a pirate's flag over the building that was developing the Mac! The symbolism doesn't get much clearer than that.
Anti-social is a bit of a misnomer. It doesn't mean not social, it more means actions against society and the wellbeing of others.
The stars can align for someone with that personality and drive and they can be succcessful, and if they are, people will absorb the blows. More often a person like that will end up in self-defeating patterns and disliked by society. But my point was that the remnants of what he left behind, though softened a bit, still make Apple a place that reminds me more of Scientology than it does a professional work environment.
Having said all that, it does seem like he was a good leader in that he was open to changing his mind and was very hands on with whether a product was good or not. I get the impression he would have used software before it shipped. Not sure how hands on Tim Cook is. So, it's not all good or bad. And obviously Apple did amazing things under him (I happen to think it did before he came back, too). But I just wouldn't want to work there.
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I didn't mean BPD specifically. And I didn't mean anti-social personality disorder as in the DSM defined term. I couldn't diagnose someone, and even a doctor would have difficulty pinpointing a diagnosis on someone with a personality disorder. I meant it in a more general sense. The way a person can be depressed without being diagnosed with depression.
I'm familiar with BPD, but I start to wonder if it's overused as a term. Although, it's tempting to say that people have it!
Cook must go
How about hiring tech visionaries who will vault Apple back to the forefront of innovation. Cook hires fashionistas from Burberry, etc. He is a disaster.
Cook arrogantly dismissed Samsung's large screen phones a year ago and Apple has been bleeding market share ever since. He under spec'd the Macbook Pro line, neutered the long overdue mac Pro, and poses like some tree hugging guru when he's just an unimaginative bean counter with a good enough philosophy. I hope he's replaced before the downward trajectory he's got Apple on becomes permanent. If the past has shown anything, companies that don't remain fiercely competitive get replaced.
How about hiring tech visionaries who will vault Apple back to the forefront of innovation. Cook hires fashionistas from Burberry, etc. He is a disaster.
Cook arrogantly dismissed Samsung's large screen phones a year ago and Apple has been bleeding market share ever since. He under spec'd the Macbook Pro line, neutered the long overdue mac Pro, and poses like some tree hugging guru when he's just an unimaginative bean counter with a good enough philosophy. I hope he's replaced before the downward trajectory he's got Apple on becomes permanent. If the past has shown anything, companies that don't remain fiercely competitive get replaced.
But Cook was always this way -- a supply chain guy who could make the trains run on time. Part of me thinks that Steve Jobs could never imagine Apple without him, even at the very end, and thus he never set up a structure that didn't rely on his extremely hands-on, top-down management style. Apple without Jobs at the helm was something Jobs never wanted to consider, so he didn't until he was quite literally on his deathbed.
Apple never listen to anyone so it is obvious the remarks made were not really directed at Tim. Apple do not take feed back. Not even from their own staff at the stores who being inundated with feed back and complaints.
Apple do not reward their user base and never have. They are far to ignorant as a company.
I stand by my comments. The new iOS design is foul. The new iPhone is tacky in look design and feel. Yes ive held one. It looks cheep and feels cheep. I would rather have an old Nokia from 5 years ago.
In my opinion Android and Samsung are easily ahead of Apple which is lamely playing catchup and still making claims to lead the industry.
I roll my eyes everytime I see another tasteless marketing video. Apple is no longer a cool company. They also need to respect their user base and reward their customers who are loyal. They have lost me already.
Why exactly would employees be inspired to do the right thing under a dishonest, often nasty man who never did the right thing himself, and then when he was replaced by a decent human being suddenly lose interest in being decent themselves...?
And there lies your problem. You used Apple products because they were "cool".
I use Apple products because they're well designed, well manufactured, and have feature and functions I find useful and get worthwhile use out of.
I have never bought an Apple product because of the cool factor nor does the opinion of the company being cool or not bother me.
Correct - I mean lets review:
Suicides, depression, being overworked, being underpaid, essentially being slave labor, etc, etc. Shall I go on?
I blame a lot of this on share holders and their incredibly obnoxious demands where its never enough profit. There is so much pressure on companies to outperform whatever some jackwad on Wall Street says thats its completely out of control.
I used to blame Apple and other companies more but if you look carefuly at the ROOT cause of the issue you'll find that this all starts with some Hedge Fund satanist that would gladly have infants make products for ZERO money if the laws allowed it.
I have to agree - Steve Jobs is often made out to be the second coming of St. Francis of Asisi and he certainly was NOT. Hes a thinker and revolutionary in many regards and that cant be argued. But, I wouldnt label him a truly selfless human being or anything. Lets not get silly.
I claimed apple is no longer a 'cool' company, not that their products were ever cool and that was my reason for using apple. Please read correctly what you are commenting and ensure your facts are correct so you don't leap to wrong conclusions. Especially if you are attacking people. Otherwise you just end up embarrassing yourself. Again...
Replying to posts from November 24th 2013?
No one was attacking anyone and I'm not the one embarrassing myself pal.
Are you ignorant enough to not know when your attacking people. Read your posts, you attacked me and others if they do not share your thoughts on Apple. Kinda sad behavior really.
I didn't "attack" you. You replied to a post from seven MONTHS ago, now get lost Princess and stop bring so precious.