Oil isn’t a problem in plastics. Even if burning oil were a serious problem turning oil into plastics poses no problems at all. Oil is an incredible resource we will be using for the next couple hundred years in manufacturing long after thorium nuclear and then fusion have replaced it as a power source.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Loses Position as World's Most Valuable Company to Oil Giant Aramco
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
At peak Android hype, in 2012, people said the same thing. That everyone would flock to Android because of the same Windows vs. Mac argument. The opposite happened. If you dont think Apple has a firm grasp of this segment over what we’ve seen in growth and revenue the past 10 years than I don’t know what you’re waiting for.
its funny how people blame oil for being greedy but don't look at companies like apple or other companies for being the same.... oil is just vilified as being evil and I drive all electric
If it’s greed and price gouging, why were oil companies not doing this last year or all of COVID? Oil fell in to the negative territory at the start. Even before then, gas was some of the cheapest we’ve had in a while? So oil companies now just chose to be greedy?
Plastic, oh boy, back in the 80’s and below when no one cared about saving the planet, plastic, abs and pvc were meant to last hundreds of years, anything made right now will start breaking and disintegrating in less than 5 years, this is why the current action Figure market is a complete scam, we are forced into buying the same items over and over again.
It always cracks me up when people here get all hurt over another company doing better than their daddy Apple lol
I just find it depressing that we're still reliant on oil.
It's not unusual to see profits go up significantly when costs go up significantly as companies often try to maintain certain margins. This doesn't necessarily mean that there is "price gouging" going on.
If costs go up and margins are maintained, profits will go up proportionately e.g., if costs increase 50% then profits should increase 50% (at least if demand stays the same). The net result can be high, even record, profits.
No.
Oil supply is down due to worker shortages (workers laid off during Covid), equipment and production materials shortages. Further, demand is up to pre-Covid levels. Supply down, demand up = higher prices.
Even if the oil companies wanted to drill more, they won't because the 2020 negative pricing episodes and oilco bankruptcies are still fresh, and investors want dividends now. And besides it would take anywhere from six months to two years to increase supply.
Is it gouging? I don't know, but stay home and watch the price drop. If one side of the equation is relatively fixed, you have to adjust the other side.
Not in the case of Norway. None of their electricity comes from gas or oil. The majority (almost 90%) is from hydro and the rest is from wind farms and geothermal plants. Even in a place like California, less than half of the electricity comes from gas or oil. For the US as a whole, about 60% comes from these sources.
Because there wasn't the need to support the price increase? If I have to explain things...
Wekk, okay then: People WILL pay for $8 a gallon gas to go to grandma's house for memorial day because on the day before it's a bad time to get a plane ride. When few people are driving, who needs the gas, who will pay the price?
We had a governor that went after the oil companies statewide for jacking up prices for weekends and holidays. And those rumors of 'gas shortages', they would have hundreds of thousands of gas RIGHT NOW, not counting the cost of the gas in their tanks, and all of a sudden their already paid for gas is more expensive? She rightly said that's not right, especially when the same gas was worth less the next Tuesday after the holiday. Sure, it's capitalism, but it's also predatory and price gouging. It's robbery in a different name. Before they did that, gas would almost routinely jump 5 or 10 cents for an average weekend, and anywhere from a quarter to higher on holidays. Gouging people for profit. It doesn't make sense except from a profit driven angle. Imagine McDonald's charging 50 cents more for the same burger just because it's a weekend. *shrug* Once a gas station on the highway here had a 'joke' and raised their prices on their big tall sign to something well over 5 times the price. People saw it and freaked out! People were coming into the gas station I happened to be at filling up everything they had because they thought there was a 'run on gas stations'. It caused a panic, the highway was almost closed down because of people lining up to buy the artificially inflated price of gas, and the state fined them for it. Fist fights broke out over people fighting over the 'last gas they had'.
I was in favor of federalizing the oil companies at that point, or at least the gas stations. But enough...
Since most gas stations in the U.S. are not owned by the oil companies, oil companies shouldn't entirely be to blame for consumer gas prices. Oil companies may set "wholesale" prices but individual gas stations set "retail" prices based on their costs, local demand and competition, taxes, desired profit, etc.
A lot of businesses regularly set and adjust prices based on demand factors e.g., restaurants offering specials/discounts during the week but not on Friday and Saturday nights, movie theaters charging higher prices during peak show times, airlines, car rental agencies, and hotels charging notably different prices depending on demand, season, day of week, etc.
Even an autonomous vehicle can “fall asleep at the wheel”.
Are you aware of the global market share of android vs iOS? It’s much different from what we have in the US or even much of Western Europe.
Again I’m not trying to criticize Apple products but they’ve got to get focused on truly improving and refining the offer. Yet they really bank on iTunes and now Apple TV more than anything. With a tepid play in the AI and information analytics space.
Apple has had a comfortable lead in many respects and it’s held up very well. But so has the rest of the mobile market. Developing nations picking up more and more.
But all these things go through cycles that require change. There is stagnation and confusion at Apple right now. And who can blame them. Losing their captain and then a pandemic and supplier issues to boot. Then Tim Cook decides to get into politics for honestly what seems to be altruistic reasons. But that may play against him in the long run.
I can’t predict the future exactly but these are just the first storms in a climate change scenario. If I’m wrong I’ll be happy as hell. Cause I don’t see much on offer elsewhere.
same with paying 400 bucks for apple to put more memory in your laptop and several 100 to upgrade the SSD, but that been going on for a while since you cant do anything on your own... thats price gouging....
There is a very good chance Aramco as an integrated oil and gas company will last way more than Apple as a consumer electronics company.Oil... Yes, that's the future, it's not going anywhere.
Energy and raw materials are everlasting necessities.
Fair enough. I was definitely understating it by only mentioning supply chain. But I still don't buy the supply/demand orthodoxy. In many cases passing on higher costs to the customer is basically gouging, imho. Also, the article specifically indicates soaring profits, which obviously suggests that costs haven't come up proportionately to revenues, in this case.
Anyway, I do get the standard arguments, and if I was in economics I'd probably work to challenge them, but I'm not so I won't.
You could say it's gouging, sure, but it doesn't fit into my definition. What Apple does is price their things according to what people will pay. People see the value in iDevices. They don't see the value in paying five dollars a gallon at the pump, though. They do it, but that's only because they have no choice. It's either that or walk.
I don't hear the average joe (IE, not us) complaining much about how much their phones cost.
One who wants to upgrade their Apple laptop doesn't see the value in paying $XXX for sure. It's the only option they have.