Thankfully I'm sure Tim would never be so crass and derisory as to denegrade an entire country and it's people by comparing them to excrement.
How quaint and thoughtful
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Tim Cook and UK Prime Minister Theresa May Discuss Apple's Presence in Country Amid Brexit [Update]
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How quaint and thoughtful
She should threaten him with iExit (or AppExit?) if he doesn't lower the price of the MacBook Pro
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Yeah but sovereignty innit.
What??
Lol. No it wouldn't!
The jewelry industry has like 1000% markup. Should the PM get all the jewelry store owners together & tell them to quit selling at their prices? How much should the PM allow a Rolex to be sold for? Bottled water is FAR more marked up than Macintosh computers. Perhaps she should tell all the beverage companies that the price for a liter of Aquafina/Dasani will be capped at 20p? Movie theater popcorn and candy seems high to me... can we get the PM to meet with the CEOs of all the theatres, to get those prices down please?
How far does your fantasy go??
Once it goes up it'll stay up I assume.
It's like taxes, why get rid of something that people have become accustomed to?
If anything, have the little guy participate more in helping making the rich richer.
Glassed Silver:ios
It does show that Apple supports the UK enough to not boycott them. Not that I think Apple should boycott them, but I'm just saying it does show some level of support.
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Who's evil, Apple for taking advantage of legal loopholes or tax-heavy countries for taking advantage of successful corporations? Each of them know that they need each other.
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It shows a level of wanting to sell product, thats what a corporation is made to do, not weigh in on political issues.
Tim : we have amazing price increases once your announce Brexit....
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Moral high ground is deflection from a non existent innovation pipeline and tax avoidance issues. For all the talk, money comes first to apple, first, second third.... it's a shame people are buying into the deflection .
Apple raised the prices in the U.K. In a flash when the Brexit vote happened , if the pound sways in a major way ....apple will take a very long time as they always do to adjust the prices....
Our American friends don't see how greedy apple is when it comes to adjusting prices, they don't care about the average user, And thier morale high ground issues sell thier products. Has apple ever taken legal action for these issues? It's just PR BS.
I'm disappointed politicians waste thier time on Tim, he never actually says anything, respect Steve for not wasting politicians time and focusing on an actual vision and product delivery.
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Apple swallowed the 20% decline of the pound for six months. Compared to that, the pound's rise since Trump started damaging the USA is minimal.
In a flash... You mean six months later.
Apparently my fantasy goes as far as expecting people to actually read what I actually said rather than responding to imaginary points I never made!
."Having a private word" and "Expressing concern" (the phases I actually used) about a dramatic increase on the price of already-old technology that typically gets cheaper over time, unlike the other things you mention, is not the same as to "tell" (the phrase you used) companies what to do. I am categorically not saying May should have issued some kind of decree that capped prices, she doesn't even have the power to do that on her own even she wanted to (which she wouldn't anyway).
And do you often pay increased prices on 3-year old popcorn at movie theatres? Eww. That can't be healthy, regardless of the price.
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Apparently my fantasy goes as far as expecting people to actually read what I actually said rather than responding to imaginary points I never made!
"Having a private word" and "Expressing concern" (the phases I actually used) about a dramatic increase on the price of already-old technology that typically gets cheaper over time, unlike the other things you mention, is not the same as to "tell" (the phrase you used) companies what to do. I am categorically not saying May should have issued some kind of decree that capped prices, she doesn't even have the power to do that on her own even she wanted to (which she wouldn't anyway).
And do you often pay increased prices on 3-year old popcorn at movie theatres? Eww. That can't be healthy, regardless of the price.
What you're saying is simply ridiculous!
Long story short, he shouldn't give her advice on nuanced political issues that he is clueless about; she shouldn't give him advice about optimal consumer tech pricing, which she is clueless about.
If you change the word tell to suggest in my post, my point still stands... should she get together all the beverage companies to SUGGEST they drop the water markup and lower the price to 20p? Should she gather all the jewelers & SUGGEST they lower their costs by over 90%? Etc.
The point is clear. No... no she should not do that.
The marketplace dictates appropriate pricing, unless there is a monopoly.
Apple may choose to charge the same price for their latest products (whether they are 3 days, or 3 years from last refresh), and the recourse is, if we don't like it- to buy something else.
NOT political bullying by someone in political power "suggesting" they lower their prices.
This is beyond obvious.
Would we all like it if they lowered prices? Sure. Should that be a POLITICAL discussion? Absolutely not!
Do you remember when Steve took the plans to the spaceship campus to Cupertino town hall to present? There was this one lady that was locked into the unrelated matter of trying to weasel free wifi forever for the city of Cupertino, payed for by Apple. It was embarrassing the way she kept on going back to it, despite that it was an inappropriate topic and obvious she was trying to pressure or "guilt" Steve into committing to providing that service.
That's the way your original post reads to me.
"Ooooh, we have the ear of a leader of industry? Instead of matters of substance... let's find an insignificant issue that would provide some minimal impact on a VERY small subset of our constituency, and glom onto that instead!".
It's classless & silly.
You did say that and I can only reply the same way:
ANY company exists to make as much money as possible. As long as they do it legally, fairness, morals and ethics do not matter. Hard to swallow, but reality.
So, ALL corporations are evil, because they grab money and work the tax laws to extremes.
Google Pfizer mergers and your head will spin, because of how much they avoided/evaded in taxes. All legal!
You can get upset with ANY corporation for what they do.
I don't see Apple claiming to be a force for good. They publish in reports what they do and a lot of it is very good.
Over the last 32 years I saw them changing their packaging to more recyclables, take back programs, even when it's not their product, remove softeners from plastic, changed soldering material etc.etc. . There is a long list of good things they have done over the years. But hey, let's not mention those. Not sexy!
Apple also has certain programs we are not seeing , supporting charities, making donations. (Steve Jobs didn't do much of that as far as we know. It has gotten better under TC)
Sometimes it also takes a while before research or studies confirm harmful chemicals and it then also takes time finding ways to replace them.
Anyway, I find complaints such as your unrealistic, because if you were to run a business you would do exactly what all of them do.
Everybody wants to make as much money as possible and pay as little in taxes as required. Don't tell me you will not take a legal tax deduction to support any government program or let them have more of your money.
If you feel so strongly about Apple being evil, stop using and buying their products, so you can sleep in peace. knowing that you are not supporting what they do.
Well, IMHO:
He'd be perfectly within his rights to champion the privacy of internet users which include his customers. It is something he knows at least a bit about.
She'd be perfectly within her right to champion the consumer and offer advice on the UK's economic conditions. She is our Prime Minister, and as such bears some responsibility for the conditions that brought about the price rises so it wouldn't be unreasonable to try to mitigate them a little if possible. Not every company whacked their prices up even on old products overnight after the EU referendum like Apple did.
You are free to disagree with that of course. It sounds to me like you think they should have just sat and discussed tea and the weather, or maybe not met at all. Which is fine, if that's the case, you're perfectly free to your opinion of course, but I disagree.
I don't think the Steve Jobs example you cite is comparable at all, on numerous levels.
WWWHHHHHHYYYYYYYY? Jesus, Tim! You are not a head of state. You sell overpriced phones and watches. What is the point of all this? To shave off a few cents in taxes?? Go back to Cupertino and run the damn company! Maybe some NEW products. I hope more and more for Apple to fall apart just so I can watch this guy become a nobody again.
This is an honest question, not a rhetorical one, as I don't live in the U.K. or follow Apple's prices in the U.K. on a daily basis: Did Apple raise prices in the U.K. in a flash when the Brexit vote happened?
Best I can tell, Apple didn't raise prices until about 2-1/2 months later when it introduced the new iPhone. At that time it also raised prices on other products. Then it raised prices on MacBooks (or at least MacBook Pros) when new Pro models were announced more than a month later. And best I can tell it wasn't until nearly 7 months after the Brexit vote (which was immediately followed by a major weakening of the Pound) that Apple raised App Store prices.
Were there other price increases that I'm not aware of? Again, that's an honest inquiry. If so, when did they happen and what products were they for? Were they for most products?
From what I've been able to piece together about pre-September (and post-Brexit) prices for Apple products in the U.K., residents there were getting considerably better deals than American residents were on some of Apple's main products - e.g., iPhone 6Ss. Backing out VAT, and accounting for currency exchange rates, those products cost less in the U.K. than in the United States. Apple was just taking the hit on margins. That's what it often does in the face of relative currency weakness in areas where it sells products. Sometimes it raises prices so that it doesn't take a hit (or as much of a hit) on margins, but then it obviously takes some hit on sales due to decreased demand. Apple tries to balance those concerns which typically means that it ends up taking some of the hit from relative local currency weakness itself in the form of decreased margins while local customers take some of the hit in the form of increased prices.
I've just gone through some of the (current) prices on Apple's U.K. website and compared them with the prices on the U.S. website. Even at the current exchange rate of about $1.25 for a Pound (which, as some have pointed out, is up slightly from recent lows for the Pound), the U.K. and U.S. prices are more or less in line with each other. They obviously aren't the same on every product as Apple likes to have more regular prices (e.g. 1449 and 1499 instead of 1442 and 1491). Some of the U.K. prices are a bit lower than the U.S. prices while some are a bit higher. Again, that's taking out the VAT in the U.K. as the U.S. prices don't include such taxes and state sales taxes are added on top of the prices that Apple lists in the United States.
I have a hat you can eat if the rate is stable for a yea rand Apple prices dont go down !
I honestly do not know where people do get this pound rise!! It us just as rubbish as it has been since the referendum.
In all likelyhood the U.K. Will become a tax haven for companies so that it gets them to come to the uk after they leave Europe. Welcome to bargain basement Britain.
Kudos for an excellent reply , and I do admit that when you do a comparison with the US dollar it's actually relative. I guess that 4K for a laptop or 1K for an iPhone is a lot of money . So yes I am complaining
and the actual facts reflect reality. One thing I will say though that apple is very fast to raise the price to match the dollar but slow if it's the other way. At once stage even after the price rise Uk was cheapest in EU . It's only going to get worst most April
From Macworld: Mail Online estimates that Apple made £1.9bn of profit in the UK in the year ended September 2014 and paid £11.8m in tax - a rate of 0.6 percent - although it should be emphasised that this figure is based on accountants' estimates of profit generated rather than Apple's own figures, which are vastly lower.
So how much lower would you like?
Grossly incorrect. Just companies run by people who think like that. ...and thank #^%* that's not all of them.
Just my $0.02, I think Tim is planning a run for some political office in the U.S. If I had to guess, I would say U.S. Senator from California.
He's gone as far as he can with Apple and he is ready to do something else.
I think this is the reason for his political comments. He is trying to increase his name recognition.
With the exception of members here, I think you would be surprised as to how many people do not know who he is. Seriously, how many people can name the CEO's of Google or Amazon?