Hmmm. This is the best argument I’ve ever heard for not using Apple products (besides the overinflated prices). Being flush with cash is probably why the CEO says he doesn’t care about the ROI (return on investment) and won’t make the costs transparent per a shareholder request. Seems like a sensible business request to me.
Some headlines/screencaps. FORTUNE magazine:
More: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/01/apple-cook-shareholders-sustainability/
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The Mac Observer:
More: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/tim-cook-soundly-rejects-politics-of-the-ncppr-suggests-group-sell-apples-s
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Press release from NCPPR:
Tim Cook to Apple Investors: Drop Dead
Apple CEO Tim Cook tells Investors Who Care More About Return on Investment than Climate Change: Your Money is No Longer Welcome
As Board Member Al Gore Cheers the Tech Giant’s Dedication to Environmental Activism, Investors Left to Wonder Just How Much Shareholder Value is Being Destroyed in Efforts to Combat “Climate Change”
Free-Market Activist Presents Shareholder Resolution to Computer Giant Apple Calling for Consumer Transparency on Environmental Issues; Company Balks
Cupertino, CA / Washington, D.C. – At today’s annual meeting of Apple shareholders in Cupertino, California, Apple CEO Tim Cook informed investors that are primarily concerned with making reasonable economic returns that their money is no longer welcome.
The message came in response to the National Center for Public Policy Research’s shareholder resolution asking the tech giant to be transparent about its environmental activism and a question from the National Center about the company’s environmental initiatives.
“Mr. Cook made it very clear to me that if I, or any other investor, was more concerned with return on investment than reducing carbon dioxide emissions, my investment is no longer welcome at Apple,” said Justin Danhof, Esq., director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project.
Danhof also asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about the company’s green energy pursuits. Danhof asked whether the company’s environmental investments increased or decreased the company’s bottom line. After initially suggesting that the investments make economic sense, Cook said the company would pursue environmental goals even if there was no economic point at all to the venture. Danhof further asked if the company’s projects would continue to make sense if the federal government stopped heavily subsidizing alternative energy. Cook completely ignored the inquiry and became visibly agitated.
Danhof went on to ask if Cook was willing to amend Apple’s corporate documents to indicate that the company would not pursue environmental initiatives that have some sort of reasonable return on investment – similar to the concession the National Center recently received from General Electric. This question was greeted by boos and hisses from the Al gore contingency in the room.
“Here’s the bottom line: Apple is as obsessed with the theory of so-called climate change as its board member Al Gore is,” said Danhof. “The company’s CEO fervently wants investors who care more about return on investments than reducing CO2 emissions to no longer invest in Apple. Maybe they should take him up on that advice.”
“Although the National Center’s proposal did not receive the required votes to pass, millions of Apple shareholders now know that the company is involved with organizations that don’t appear to have the best interest of Apple’s investors in mind,” said Danhof. “Too often investors look at short-term returns and are unaware of corporate policy decisions that may affect long-term financial prospects. After today’s meeting, investors can be certain that Apple is wasting untold amounts of shareholder money to combat so-called climate change. The only remaining question is: how much?”
The National Center’s shareholder resolution noted that “[s]ome trade associations and business organizations have expanded beyond the promotion of traditional business goals and are lobbying business executives to pursue objectives with primarily social benefits. This may affect Company profitability and shareholder value. The Company’s involvement and acquiescence in these endeavors lacks transparency, and publicly-available information about the Company’s trade association memberships and related activities is minimal. An annual report to shareholders will help protect shareholder value.”
Apple’s full 2014 proxy statement is available here. The National Center’s proposal, “Report on Company Membership and Involvement with Certain Trade Associations and Business Organizations,” appears on page 60.
The National Center filed the resolution, in part, because of Apple’s membership in the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), one of the country’s largest trade associations. In its 2013 “Retail Sustainability Report,” RILA states: “Companies will often develop individual or industry voluntary programs to reduce the need for government regulations. If a retail company minimizes its waste generation, energy and fuel usage, land-use footprint, and other environmental impacts, and strives to improve the labor conditions of the workers across its product supply chains, it will have a competitive advantage when regulations are developed.”
“This shows that rather than fighting increased government regulation, RILA is cooperating with Washington, D.C.’s stranglehold on American business in a misguided effort to stop so-called climate change,” said Danhof. “That is not an appropriate role for a trade association.”
For even more information on RILA, read “The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA): A Cartel that Threatens Innovation and Competitiveness,” by National Center Senior Fellow Dr. Bonner Cohen.
“Rather than opting for transparency, Apple opposed the National Center’s resolution,” noted Danhof. “Apple’s actions, from hiring of President Obama’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson, to its investments in supposedly 100 percent renewable data centers, to Cook’s antics at today’s meeting, appear to be geared more towards combating so-called climate change rather than developing new and innovative phones and computers.”
After Danhof presented the proposal, a representative of CalPERS rose to object and stated that climate change should be one of corporate America’s primary concerns, and after she called carbon dioxide emissions a “mortal danger,” Apple board member and former vice president Al Gore turned around and loudly clapped and cheered.
“If Apple wants to follow Al Gore and his chimera of climate change, it does so at its own peril,” said Danhof. “Sustainability and the free market can work in concert, but not if Al Gore is directing corporate behavior.”
“Tim Cook, like every other American, is entitled to his own political views and to be an activist of any legal sort he likes on his own time,” said Amy Ridenour, chairman of the National Center for Public Policy Research. “And if Tim Cook, private citizen, does not care that over 95 percent of all climate models have over-forecast the extent of predicted global warming, and wishes to use those faulty models to lobby for government policies that raise prices, kill jobs and retard economic growth and extended lifespans in the Third World, he has a right to lobby as he likes. But as the CEO of a publicly-held corporation, Tim Cook has a responsibility to, consistent with the law, to make money for his investors. If he’d rather be CEO of the Sierra Club or Greenpeace, he should apply.”
“As in the past, Cook took but a handful of questions from the many shareholders present who were eager to ask a question at the one meeting a year in which shareholder questions are taken,” added Ridenour, “leaving many disappointed. Environmentalism may be a byword at Apple, but transparency surely is not.”
The National Center’s Free Enterprise Project is a leading free-market corporate activist group. In 2013, Free Enterprise Project representatives attended 33 shareholder meetings advancing free-market ideals in the areas of health care, energy, taxes, subsidies, regulations, religious freedom, media bias, gun rights and many more important public policy issues. Today’s Apple meeting was the National Center’s third attendance at a shareholder meeting so far in 2014.
The National Center for Public Policy Research is an Apple shareholder, as are National Center executives.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors.
=================================================================
h/t to “cincinatuschili”
UPDATE: Yes, he must have.
@wattsupwiththat Wonder if he's forgotten about all those coal fired power stations running his Chinese factories?
— Karl Bentley (@bentleykarl) March 2, 2014
Wow. Disgusting. Maybe I should sell my iMac and both iPads.
Intoxicated by rotten apples …
SHOCK, HORROR – HOLD THE PRESS! Free enterprise CEO sees where the money (currently) is, plays to gallery.
Give him time. He’s making his company look good to those currently in power. It *is* pathetic, but it’s perfectly logical, and when things change, he (or someone like him) will quietly change tack.
Why don’t apple let me change to battery for my Ipod instead of having to chuck it?
A cartoon with Al Gore’s face on the worm in the apple wouldn’t be out of line.
Seriously, one of the most wasteful, NON-eco companies on the PLANET is spinning their way into eco-idiots’ minds as a “green” company. And anyone who points it out is free to f** themselves?
From this point on, I’m banning the use or presence of any and all Apple products from my property and business, and I’ll be updating my websites to detect Apple equipment and forward them immediately to an offensive other location.. maybe something religious or conservative.
Apple and their supporters can go f** themselves.
Yikes….AGW belief is beginning to sound like the 666 beast of Revelation whereby one is not allowed to trade or prosper unless you are in of the it!
[“..in on it” instead? Mod]
I’ll inform my financial advisor of Mr. Cook’s opinion so he may divest me of Apple stock.
Too cult-like for me. I’m moving away from Apple, like it’s the forbidden fruit.
is he aware of the work conditions at foxconn?
can he be taken seriously?
Another reason for avoiding crApple. But given the gimmicky toys are crap, incompatible with anything else and cost twice the going rate, weren’t there enough reasons to buy anyone else’s products already.
Companies like Apple and Microsoft bleat on about sustainability.
1 Upgrade from an I phone 4 to 5 and you have to have new cables for your computer at work and in car charger. Also if you have a docking station you’ll need a new adapter.
2 Microsoft stopping support for Windows XP means that many businesses will have to dispose of perfectly good machines?
Sheesh! Where are these climate change den1ers? I can’t find ’em. Everyone I ask, “Does the climate change?” says – looking askance at me, “What a maroon! Of course it changes. Haven’t you heard about the glaciers?”
Now, ask me about CO2-based CAGW…
One of the most kludged together architectures out there. Good riddance for the two faced second rate company.
Not really mind-blowing. Progressivism encompasses a whole range of beliefs on seemingly unrelated issues like CAGW, gay marriage and immigration. It’s a complete worldview and it’s very popular in Silicon Valley, so it is not surprising that Apple is taking this position.
I must say I have no apple products nor intend to purchase any. I am unaware if any of my mutual funds have apple stock in their portfolios, I will have to query them.
Apple is no more sustainable than Steve Jobs was. Most companies die, just as their founders. Cook and Gore own more than $100 million of Apple stock at the current valuations but the stock is down about 25% from its all time high. I wouldn’t be disappointed in further declines.
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t own any Apple stock, and I’ll be sure not to change that!
Love it!
I have never had need for their overpriced devices that cater to pretentious liberals who worship Apple like a cult religion and Steve Jobs like the Messiah.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/05/19/apple.religion/
Nothing more or less than the marketing of political and fiscal opportunism. One day quite soon, it will not be.
lol, please delete prior comment. Muscle memory screwed me up there.
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t own any Apple stock, and I’ll be sure not to change that!
Choosing Microsoft over Apple? Both are sucking non-stop on the teat of Guvmint Subsidies for green this, that and the other, while Google enjoys the same green, milky tax-fed goodness for its data centers… It is also silly to say to Apple, “Don’t use the free money,” while their competitors grab fistfuls of the stuff…
just put in my order to sell on opening – will take a monetary loss but gain some personal satisfaction. Thankfully I don’t have to put up with that bs just to make a few bucks
Sadly, pretending to be green drives sales to the idiotic masses. The return on being “green” is very high because the young folks doing most of the buying are brainwashed morons.
Unreal!
I don’t know if I qualify as a “denier” in his parlance since I believe there is some warming, but that the catastrophists have grossly overblown the sensitivity. I don’t use a Mac anymore, but I’m due to trade in this i-phone4. Next one will not be an Apple.
C U ’round, Mr. Cook.
And just at the point where I was wavering over my next desktop development system.
I mean, its not about the cloaked Unix OS that is pitched as Apples Very Own, I know that, but I really like the ‘stir weld’ edges to the latest iMac monitor – pity Apple made a deal with the English Aerospace company that invented that cool process so that no other monitor maker could use it.
I guess that is also about sustainability? Or perhaps sustainability is the “15,000 engineers I need to make apples (5? go you fanbois, prove i am wrong) product lines”.
Well that’s what Cook told the little “o” when asked why he didn’t make them in the USA anyway (nothing to do with avoiding US Taxes, silly sceptic me).
So damn it looks like I will have to stay with MS and a plastic case monitor – sigh…
Tell me Cookie, when you screamed ‘get out!’ did that also apply to purchases of products?
It does for me…..
[snip]
@ cartoonasaur :
Good points. I have been using Linux since the ’90s when an MS virus destroyed some of my work on a computer I was using. I have never looked back and I can’t find much of anything worth doing with a computer that can not be done with a Linux distro. (I have used Debian and Ubuntu mostly; but not entirely)
Not a problem. I would prefer that the company spend some time and effort ensuring that they minimize their impact on the environment rather than feed more money to the shareholders. Besides, the only other options for Phones and Tablets are Windows and Android. Android has serious malware issues, not to mention Google’s advertising needs, and as for Windows….
I’ve been avoiding Apple product for over a decade specifically because of their relationship with various green silliness. I wish I were able to pry myself away from Google stuff so readily.
Those who are AAPL shareholders ought to consider a motion to demand that their suppliers and assemblers be powered exclusively by renewables, no ‘offsets’ need apply. I’d love to see Foxconn trying to claim their power is ‘renwable’.
@markstoval
I have never seen a Linux distro that was easier to use, supported more hardware or supported more software than Windows. Since I have always ran Anti-virus software and keep my systems patched, I’ve never had malware destroy anything of mine for over 25 years.
I will have no more business dealings with anything relating to Apple, or their products. They are obviously being run by an idiot.
It’s interesting to read through some of the comments at the sites linked above, CNN and MacObserver. In both cases, Apple fanboys rave on and on about how Apple is so green, skeptics are so stupid, fossil fuels HAVE ruined the planet, WE destroyed the ozone layer, Apple pays the most taxes, Apple is the only company that looks after their masses of Chinese workers, etc.
It’s like reading through some dystopian novel from the 50s. They actually believe that Apple is a great, helpful, dear leader. They think that gigatons of plastic and environmentally harmful manufacturing and distribution, non-replaceable batteries, and massive slabs of disposable hardware, are somehow GOOD for the planet because of the intentions of the company. They believe this, in spite of everything.
Apple fans are truly delusional.
Kath, Android malware issues are overblown and you get free anti-virus,
http://www.avast.com/en-us/free-mobile-security
Seems he thinks his “walled garden” can’t be escaped. PffffT!
He probably never really took a look at his iPhone 5 vs a Galaxy Note 3 🙂
When he does, its gonna hurt!
I predict this will be another “Oh The Pain” moment in business history!
I would guess that upwards of 98% of the energy used to manufacture Apple products are
not under the control of Tim Cook or his fellow executive noodleheads. His policies, even if they made any sense, are totally meaningless. My guess is that Cook, as a failing CEO, is using these
meaningless corporate policies to maintain control of his customer base and hold onto his phony baloney job. Someone should have asked him what he means by “sustainability” and why anyone should care. Now THAT response woud have been worth listening to, unlike anything else that has ever come out of Cook’s mouth. I won’t give up my Apple stock or my Apple products. But that’s largely because I don’t own any of the overpriced crap.
Not the first article I have seen on this but I am waiting to hear from someone that knows if a board member of a publicly traded company can do things like this without violating the fiduciary responsibilities to the shareholders. O_o -Paul
Reminds me of the Starbucks CEO who told people who weren’t for gay marriage to get out of the company.
Besides the fascist overtones from Cook on this, it’s obnoxious of him to take this position simply because it’s not like he started the company. He has no more rights to it than any shareholder.
And what about those of us who don’t live in mansions in southern California and actually WANT global warming? What should we do?
Poptech – Amazing video, thanks. Pure, unadulterated mutual cultism – a symbiosis of ideals expressed by commercial commensalism if you will. Apple capitalize on the Gaia group, primed, ready formed, and receptively hardwired to be ‘on message’ but above all, hungry to buy.
Smart illusive cookies these Apple folk.
It’s not as if there are other priorities other than green washing Mr.Cook?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/apple-rushes-to-fix-glaring-security-flaw-as-bad-as-you-could-imagine/article17062369/
cnxtim: Linux….
: > )
Our company runs apple phones. I will propose we switch vendors.
As expected, Fortune is deleting my comments at their site.
That’s it!
I’m selling my Apple shares.
Both of them.
I have been using Microsoft based products at work and Apple based products at home for a number of years now. I like both products sets for different reasons and I will continue to choose the approrpriate product for the relevant requirement.
Having said that, I think this statement by the CEO of Apple is just plain stupid. It is posturing of the worst kind because he cannot back up what he is saying with anything definitive. He cannot enforce this edict so all he is going to do is to alienate people. That is not a good idea for any company to do.
Companies should be responsible, not political.
Sell AAPL, they’ve jumped the shark.
I will certainly be getting out and staying out of Apple Stock as long as this fool is in charge. Wouldn’t a better idea would be to fire him and get a CEO who has more contact with reality?
As per Mr. Cook’s suggestion, I will divest myself of his stock as of tomorrow. How dumb can you be??
I won’t eat a rotten Apple. I will bite a Samsung Galaxy though. 🙂 I currently use an HTC and was looking for a new and better smartphone.
As one who is completely comfortable with life as a hated “DENIER”, nevertheless folks here at WUWT need to get a grip on the attitudes of a company that sees fit to have Algore on its Board.
It is what it is … Algore defines their social philosophies, and a tool for their protection from governments, including non-U.S. governments.
Whatever Apple spends on “sustainability” matters, it’s utterly, completely, and absolutely immaterial. I doubt very much they spend more than a couple million bucks a year, max, on such things.
Compare that with their finances …
Sales, Trailing 12 Months (TTM) – $175 Billion … with a “B”
Net Income, TTM – $37B
Free Cash Flow, TTM – $44B
Cash & short-term investments – 12/31/13 – $40.7B
Equity, 12/31/13 – $225B
Do I think Apple’s views and love for Algore and, apparently, AGW are whacky? You bet.
Do I think the shareholder group who challenged the CEO has a significant argument – basing it on the amount being spent by Apple with which they disagree – is whacky? You bet, because they’re talking about pocket change.
Given the ridiculous argument being made by the shareholder, what is surprising is that the CEO reportedly didn’t maintain his cool. There was nothing to get excited about, so why did he get excited?
I suspect the total costs associated with so-called green operating rules are non-trivial. Also, the question is religious: one might better demand a conservative Jew abandon Kosher beef for pork hot dogs with plenty of nitrates. Sure, the uncured beef may be healthier for trivial cost, but the issue isn’t really health or cost – it’s God’s will. In Cook’s case, the Cathedral has spoken, and all shall obey or be shunned.
Well, It’s time to sell Apple (AAPL) since it’s clear the CEO has become distracted by non-core business matters.
I have never used an Apple anything that I can think of.
Apple is fashion and fad. Successful fashion and fad but marketing nevertheless.
Underneath all the hype, which is way down underneath, real engineering is at work at Apple.
So this is just to create a buzz…because there is nothing new at Apple and for growth you need something new. The dumb market will love his line….so then will the Apple BoD.
LOL ROFLMAO.
Let’s take a look at the climate campaigner and super hypocrite Al Gore and his investment company. What did they do?
SEC Filings
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1375534/000117266112000799/generation2q12.txt
Manfred, Apple caters to liberal guilt which is why they are never (rarely) attacked for their capitalist ways. Apple is the “good” corporation, even though just about every productive business on the planet uses Windows based platforms. The late Steve Jobs is considered a liberal hippy guru, thus the ideal of what a CEO should be, no matter how much of a dishonest jerk he was in real life. They make all pretentious over priced crap bought mostly by people who want to seem trendy or really don’t know how to use technology. For usability I give them credit but I don’t believe the extra cost is justifiable, especially when it comes with software restrictions that requires voiding your warranty (jail breaking) just to be able to do the same things on other platforms.
I have been using Macintosh computers since 1987. Though the gap has narrowed considerably, and although the Macintosh has had its own ups and downs, Macs were then in general have been vastly superior in usability to PCs running varieties of MS Windows. I also have an iPhone, which synchronizes with my Macs. I have and do use PCs as well, and in fact managed an office with about 20 of them, because the software we used was PC-only. That only reinforced my preference for the Mac OS and for Apple products generally.
That said, I have never been happy with Algore’s presence on the Apple Board, but in point of fact Steve Jobs always was an inveterate California liberal and I assume was responsible for the Goracle’s presence. Tim Cook is clearly subscribing to the Founder’s and the company’s preferences.
I have to take the same attitude that Rush Limbaugh does: Rush has always been an Apple/Mac champion, has spent many whole segments of his show discussing and extolling the virtues of the Mac, and is a great admirer of Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial genius. Apple won’t advertise on his show, of course, but then, they don’t need to—Rush does it for free.
I dislike Google and its public leftwing, PC profile, so I avoid Google products. But I have to just look the other way when it comes to the Mac—it’s just better. I don’t own any stock, but sure wish I had bought some in the mid-nineties when it was about $20 a share and everyone was predicting the company’s imminent demise.
I expect that if government subsidies for ‘renewable’ energy disappear, you’ll find Apple’s management moving away from ‘sustainability’ rhetoric. So lets work at the government level to get rid of those ridiculous subsidies, and ignore the PC nonsense that permeates the highest levels of all too many American corporations.
/Mr Lynn
Apple Fanboys are so obsessive and easy to bait, some have been making an art of it for years,
… a representative of CalPERS rose to object and stated that climate change should be one of corporate America’s primary concerns, and after she called carbon dioxide emissions a “mortal danger,” Apple board member and former vice president Al Gore turned around and loudly clapped and cheered.
Hmm. Last June’s annual investment statement for CALPERS shows holdings of:
$1,250,338,249 in EXXON/MOBILE stock, and
$259,343,672 in CONOCO/PHILLIPS, for starters. Check it for yourself at:
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/pubs/annual-investment-report-2013.pdf
CALSTRS (teachers’ retirement program) has something similar.
With unfunded liabilities looming, we retirees need to push for management changes before the present ideologues recognize the hypocrisy of their present practices and start divestiture proceedings.
So does this mean that Al Gore will have to divest his Apple stock? Or will he divest of the vast family fortune invested in the Oil and Gas sector instead?
Actually, Tim Cook comments and reasons are being distorted by both the Warmists and, sadly, now we skeptics. He was replying to suggestions of fair wages, working conditions, environmental concerns and other such. Not climate warming nor climate change. Those are words reporters are putting in his mouth. Indeed, we who question the religion of global warming can and should be for responsible environmental practices by corporations. Being environmentally sound has nothing to do with believing in global warming caused by humans. It has to do with not fouling our own nests. Go find the video or full transcript of the entire exchange. I can see the distortion loving Warmists twisting Cook’s statements, but now those of us looking at the facts.
My dislike for Apple goes back to 1985 and my first encounter with a Mac (9″ screen and all). I’d been working on minicomputers like the ModComp with the MAXIV OS, and Mini-and-MicroVAXs with VMS (loved that OS), so when the office brought in a bunch of Macs for doing our documentation and such, I was very interested to have at it.
It took me about one hour to decide I didn’t like it. Didn’t like the fonts, didn’t like the mouse, didn’t like the look’n’feel of anything. I switched to a PC running DOS 3.0 as soon as possible and never looked back. A few months later I tested Windows 3.0 (3.0!) and loved it so much more than the Apple, even with all its warts. Been a windows guy ever since, though I use UNIX a lot more at work. Would never own another Apple product.
Name a green company that has become anything in the long-run.
The worst investments on Earth are the ones that make no economic sense. That would be green ones as a sub-sample of the non-economic ones.
If Apple thinks it can become the first green success company, it might be time to divest it. Apple is about dirty electronic products that require all kinds of dangerous chemical reactions and dangerous chemicals in order to produce it and recycle it. Not anything else.
I got out of AAPL back in 2012 after enjoying a pretty good run. I’m taking a few of those realized gains and purchasing a Mark Steyn gift certificate. I’ll call it a capitalist off-set.
MrLynn, whatever usability advantages the Mac had, those have not been an issue since 2001 and Windows XP. If anything Microsoft went too far towards the Mac interface with Windows Vista/7. The only thing Macs are vastly superior to Windows machines is in the price.
Rush doesn’t know anything about technology and I turn his show off when he starts making nonsensical rants about it.
Avoiding using Google is like living in the Internet stone age.
The only “Apple” product I’ve owned was an Apple II knock-off made in Taiwan. Nice machine. Should have kept it as a collectors item maybe?
I think a (profitable) company has the right to do whatever they deem necessary to maintain their social license to operate and that includes avoiding unnecessary bad press by complying with energy efficiency measures and so on.
On the other hand the use of the word “denier” in this context is unnecessarily provocative for a person in Tim Cook’s position. Whatever his motivation for maintaining his a social license to operate it is pointless and lacking in pragmatism when selling products to unnecessarily insult those potential consumers who have a differing perspective.
Since I refuse to use a phone that’s smarter than I am, my own cell phone is a pretty basic no-name model…definitely not Apple.
I wouldn’t have one at all, but the wife insists I be nag-able 24/7. 🙁
The idiot should be doing what I and others are doing. Put up a global ban on all Russian IP addresses to prevent them from all internet commerce, information, and entertainment until the occupation of Crimea is ended.
Meanwhile he needs to read a good book on climate and I would direct his attention to Bob Tisdale’s work.
Note to moderator – Do we really need to have all of this pro-mac/pro-windows rubbish on this blog – there are plenty of other blogs where people who have nothing else to do can vent their spleen on that topic. Surely it’s off-topic.
[Reply: actually, it’s not exactly off-topic. ~ mod.]
Don’t tell Apple, but it turns out that the oceans are far healthier than anyone thought: http://pindanpost.com/2014/03/03/oceans-healthier-than-thought-and-that-also-changes-our-views-on-ocean-health/
Greenies will not be happy at this fantastic news.
I first bought an Apple 12 years ago, since then, I have bought 4 HP hard drives and 2 laptops. The Apple Mac was too much of a problem in the end. Another reason I don’t have an IPhone or ‘Ianything’. Goodbye Apple. Behaving just like Google!
Yes, but the number of (uninstallable) bloatware increases!
The new Samsung Galaxy S5 16GiB, soon on the market, have less then 8GiB available for the user. The rest are occupied by mostly bloatware. (I’m using at the time a S3 with simular problems. I don’t use any of the asocial and “share-with-Google/Samsung” apps, so there’s no sense for these to be running hidden in the background all the time stealing resources)
“We don’t want your money.”
Spoken like a very bad businessman.
“A Pew Research survey of 39 nations conducted between March and May (2013) found that 40% of Americans say climate change as a major threat to the U.S.,.. compared to a median of 54% in the global survey.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/27/most-americans-believe-climate-change-is-real-but-fewer-see-it-as-a-threat/
I know very few skeptics who don’’t believe Co2 has some effect on climate, so I guess all those deniers he’s talking about are those who don’t believe we should light ourselves on fire just yet, over “climate change.”
On that basis, in the U.S. going on two thirds of us could well be considered “deniers.” Globallly, close to half.
That’s a lot of iPhones.
If you want to hurt Apple have the local governments shut off water and power to Apples’ data centers in Oregon and NC. Or, have Apple build the centers and then condemn them under eminent domain and turn them into denier GCM server farms!
Poptech I still use XP, which is OK but IMO not a patch on OS X; Win7 is closer, but no cigar. I am not altogether happy with Apple’s moving the Mac OS in the direction of iOS, but to my mind it is still superior to anything M$ offers.
Back in the ’80s, the DOS command line interface mystified me. Then came the Mac, with a genuine GUI, and—wonder of wonders!—desktop publishing! I have never looked back. M$ attempted one steal after another of the Mac OS (Windows 3.1, Win95, etc.) but never really came close. And the Windows OS was full of holes that invited all manner of malware to the party—rarely a problem for Macs, even now, when practically every college student arrives on campus with a MacBook Pro or Air.
For the record, of the four active computers in the household, I have my two Macs, currently running OS 10.8.5, and my wife her two Dells, running Win7 (her company software is Windows—and IE–only; dinosaurs in my view). When I need to run XP, I use a virtual machine running in Parallels on my iMac. Works fine.
But, contrary to the robust disparagement of Mac users above, not all of us are yuppie cultists thronging Apple Stores. The Mac OS, going back to System 6 (in my experience) has always been vastly superior to anything else in the personal-computer market, and that’s why I stick with it. Obviously, YMMV.
/Mr Lynn
“They make all pretentious over priced crap bought mostly by people who want to seem trendy or really don’t know how to use technology.”
I disagree. We have Android and iPad here, and the iPad is certainly overpriced in terms of the hardware inside, but it also performs better than my Nexus 7 that’s theoretically four times as powerful.
When a complete non-tech like me can choose from maybe a dozen flavours of Linux he particularly likes (out of hundreds he might or might not like) and use the system free on a hundred dollar machine bought off ebay, and have it all running fast and fine…
Is this a time to alienate customers for a very high-cost product?
Oh, …
… my comment @ March 2, 2014 at 5:00 pm was a respond to Poptech on March 2, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Goldie, I can’t speak for the moderators, but IMO it’s not off-topic for Mac users to explain why they might continue to use the product despite the professed idiocy of Apple’s management, which is the topic of the original post.
And, of course, if you find a topic or thread unappealing, you are free to read another one, or none at all.
/Mr Lynn
Wow…. Just, wow…
It makes good sense for corporations to have recycle programs and reasonable and pragmatic pollution standards, but for Apple to implement an insane policy to achieve 100% “green” energy sourcing is in breech of fiduciary duty and should lead shareholders to fire Cook.
Wasting money on “green” energy will make Apple’s products uncompetitive and these wasted funds will have ripple effects in: lower profits, less R&D funds, less innovation, lower wages, slower business expansion, less promotional funds and lower stock prices.
All this financial loss and misappropriation of funds so Apple can “contribute” a few billionths of a degree C to “save” the Earth from global warming…
Oh, the humanity…
apple still in business? never own one of their products. they seem metrosexual.
He’s just begging for a lawsuit from an investor, isn’t he?
dp – all my servers are firewalled against Russia, and have been for years. It’s essentially a lawless society that is the source of an astounding amount of malware, attacks, spam, open servers used by others, and everything harmful.
But Apple can’t block Russia, where would they then get their marching orders?
‘RILA states: “Companies will often develop individual or industry voluntary programs to reduce the need for government regulations. If a retail company minimizes its waste generation, energy and fuel usage, land-use footprint, and other environmental impacts, and strives to improve the labor conditions of the workers across its product supply chains, it will have a competitive advantage when regulations are developed.”‘
An invitation to crony capitalism/fascism.
“Apple plans on having 100 percent of its power come from green sources.”
This is a lie. Apple recently built a data center at Maiden, NC. In cooperation with Duke Energy, they built a PV solar farm adjacent to the center. Duke is on the hook for the state’s RPS, so they were happy to have a customer. Apple presumably gets a good price on electricity in return. Terms of the contract have not been published. Even though Duke is a publicly regulated company, the deal is secret.
Anywho, you can’t run a 24/7/365 data center on solar generated electricity. Obviously, the data center is not powered by their solar farm. It is just a big show. To what purpose, I don’t know. But the power from green sources is a lie. You can’t rely on it. So they get their power from the grid, like everyone else.
Regardless of any political or environmental ‘beliefs’, if the CEO of a publicly held company refuses disclosure of relevant operating expenses and investment financials to the share holders, the financial risks to shareholders increase proportionally. If the CEO can’t manage transparency on a seemingly nonproprietary and innocuous line of questions such as pursued by NCPPR, you have to ask “What wasteful or possibly illegal things are they hiding?”
I don’t own Apple shares directly but I will be reviewing some mutual fund investments for exposure…. and calling their investment managers to express my concerns with any significant Apple holdings in those funds. I suggest others do likewise and encourage the mutual fund investment managers to ask Apple’s Mr. Cook the same questions NCPPR asked and insist on direct, full disclosure answers at their first opportunity.
Turn up the heat… and let’s ‘Cook This Apple’!
MarkG on March 2, 2014 at 5:12 pm
Not sure about iOS, but does it allow ended/dead tasks/processes to remain in memory? It sure does in Android (due to sloppy programming) …
SasjaL, you might want to try a better OS image with no bloatware,
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
Just as well nobody told Apple about my App store app “Climategate” 🙂
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/climategate/id386480628
never been an apple fan only because I like to build my own stuff and mess with o/s installs, I often have 5 or so OS installed on the pc. right now win7, xorin 8, mint 16.
if not for 3 or 4 items I use a lot I could run linux mint happily, but win7 just plain works well for me especially on a domain with exchange server.
but I digress, if he starts taking losses I think he would be required to back out of them so time will tell.
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – writ large.
“Not sure about iOS, but does it allow ended/dead tasks/processes to remain in memory?”
I believe so, though it probably has to kill them sooner due to having 1/4 as much RAM. But, since many Android apps are written in Google’s version of Java rather than native languages, they probably need a lot more RAM in the fist place.
SasjaL, not understanding how Android uses memory appears to be a common myth,
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
“A common misunderstanding about Android multitasking is the difference between a process and an application. In Android these are not tightly coupled entities: applications may seem present to the user without an actual process currently running the app; multiple applications may share processes, or one application may make use of multiple processes depending on its needs; the process(es) of an application may be kept around by Android even when that application is not actively doing something.
The fact that you can see an application’s process “running” does not mean the application is running or doing anything. It may simply be there because Android needed it at some point, and has decided that it would be best to keep it around in case it needs it again. Likewise, you may leave an application for a little bit and return to it from where you left off, and during that time Android may have needed to get rid of the process for other things.”
This pretty much spells the end of Apple. Once they go from concentrating on great technology with a great user experience to doing things for ideological reasons, they’re gone. Jobs is not there anymore to keep them focused. They have just alienated a large portion of their potential customer and investor base.
If Apple are so keen on sustainability then how come if you want to update a Mac piece of software older than a couple of years then the chances are you will have to buy a whole new Mac because the updated software is designed not to run on the older hardware. This is not true for my Linux or Windows machines.
Indeed Apple’s whole business is based on people ditching their old machines and buying new ones even if the old ones would be perfectly capable of doing the job.
I am happy Windows is not like OS X, that way I can get work done faster without all the hand holding.
You mean after Apple stole the idea from Xerox? Just about everything Apple has done has been a ripoff of someone else’s idea. People still believe they invented the MP3 player.
Any OS is full of holes if you don’t apply patches. Mac security is another urban legend,
http://www.informationweek.com/security/vulnerabilities-and-threats/mac-botnet-now-600000-infected-machines-strong/d/d-id/1103742?
Every college student attending an urban liberal arts college you mean.
Maybe not but I rarely meet one who is not evangelical about them.
If Apple corporate culture is this far off and is willing to waste stockholder assets this foolishly and arrogantly, there are almost certainly other mistakes they are making that will surface in the near future. Get the popcorn. Watching this fail will be very entertaining.
MarkG on March 2, 2014 at 5:12 pm
Still using my Galaxy S “liberated” with Cyanogen for my home number. It’s working very fine with almost twice the battery time as before, but it’s bricked regarding upgrades since earliy 10.x version and I’m not the only one that have that experience …
Upgrading the S3? No, still long time before warranty will expire (June 2015). OS updating of own choice before that, will cost me a new mobile if something happens, as both supplier and Samsung don’t accept the procedure during the warranty period.
I wonder what Carl Icahn thinks about this.
The Old Crusader on March 2, 2014 at 5:41 pm
Try genuin Italian ice cream instead! Taste much better and available for less then half the price of B&J … 😉
With CyanogenMod installed or stock? I don’t own a Nexus 7, so I cannot comment but am incredibly skeptical.
Let’s not be so outraged. After a clear sign that he has no intention whatsoever of listening to Apple’s investors it should be quite clear that CEO Tim Cook is likely to be shortly leaving Apple. It would seem likely he’s just honing his listening skills for a job as representative in the US House or Senate where he’ll have no intention of hearing what the investors (I think they’re called taxpayers) have to say either.
“Another reason for avoiding crApple. But given the gimmicky toys are crap, incompatible with anything else and cost twice the going rate, weren’t there enough reasons to buy anyone else’s products already”.
+1
makes me feel good apple products are banned in our household. of course, the kids (and their friends) got to use them in school, and ‘fondly’ referred to the school computers as macintrashes. after my android phone got wet and doing research on how to save it, I was given another reason to be glad I didn’t purchase an iphone. if an iphone get’s wet, you have to buy a new one because you can’t take it apart to dry it out. I was able to dry out my android phone, and save several hundred dollars not having to buy a new phone.
If the problem is not listed as a known issue, it is likely a software/hardware issue with your phone or the PC you are attempting to update it from.
Haha, nice …an actual reason to buy an iPhone, just for your app.
is it the writer, Philip Elmer DeWitt who used the term “denier”, not the Apple CEO? just asking, because this story is sparking off another round of denier abuse:
2 Mar: UK Independent: Apple’s Tim Cook: Business isn’t just about making a profit
by Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith
But Apple chief executive Tim Cook has shocked some in the US with an impassioned attack on the single-minded pursuit of profit – and a direct appeal to climate-change deniers not to buy shares in his firm.
Eyewitnesses said Cook, who succeeded Steve Jobs as boss of the technology giant in 2011, was visibly angry as he took on a group of right-wing investors during a question-and-answer session at a shareholders’ meeting…
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/apples-tim-cook-business-isnt-just-about-making-a-profit-9163931.html
as viewed from another perspective!
3 Mar: Greenbiz: How GE and Apple shareholders became tools for climate deniers
By Joel Makower
Last week, the National Center for Public Policy Research, a group “dedicated to providing free-market solutions to today’s public policy problems,” claimed credit for a “major concession” by General Electric, “that the international conglomerate will no longer engage in any environmental project solely to address so-called climate change concerns.”…
“For years, GE has been the poster boy for crony capitalism and corporate America’s green energy cheerleader,” the center declared in a press release. “Now, GE shareholders have confirmation that the company’s strategies will henceforth be led by true market forces and not by blind adherence to global warming zealotry.”
Has GE and ecomagination, its nine-year-old marketing campaign, suddenly turned tail?
Not so much. While the company changed the language on its website — possibly based on pressure from NCPPR, although the company won’t say — it claims it hasn’t changed its policy or operations one bit. It still unabashedly is focused on tapping what it sees as a massive business opportunity for renewable energy and other cleaner and more efficient technologies, aimed at addressing some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges, including climate change.
“Nothing really has changed here. We clarify different policies all the time,” Seth Martin, GE’s director of financial communications, told me. “We’ve always said that these projects have to make business sense, that this is a business strategy.” He noted that the new language it posted “didn’t reflect a change of position or anything along those lines.”…
NCPPR seems to be engaging in a clever and effective version of the old question “Are you still beating your wife?” — in which the climate deniers win no matter what. If a company “clarifies” its policies, as GE did, to reflect something it had been doing all along, NCPPR takes credit for a “major concession.” If a company refuses to respond or, as Apple did, commits to actions it deems in the public interest but which don’t necessarily have a visible financial return, NCPPR castigates it as anti-shareholder. It’s a lose-lose game.
Greenpeace could not have done it better.
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/03/03/how-ge-and-apple-shareholders-became-tools-climate-deniers
I did a write up awhile back re: Apple here:
http://dailybail.com/home/links-apple-patent-could-transform-wind-power-industry.html
You missed the meaning, the Catch 22 question was, “When did you stop beating your wife?”
Is not a failure of transparency to stockholders a failure of legal obligations to stockholders?
“When a complete non-tech like me can choose from maybe a dozen flavours of Linux he particularly likes (out of hundreds he might or might not like) and use the system free on a hundred dollar machine bought off ebay, and have it all running fast and fine…”.
Pclinuxos dual booting XP on a Lenovo X61 works for me.
I an not impressed in some Apple jerk lecturing me on “sustainability”.
A company that specialises in hype and marketing to make sure your
device is expensive and obsolete as quickly as possible.
And still zombies line up at midnight when a new toy is out…
I will bet most of those hipsters at the protest in front of the White House in the previous post had Apple products. Apple sells an image, which is why their products have few, if any, screws or removable batteries or anything else that makes it look put together. Image costs money, lots of money. And where do these hipsters get their money? I promise you it isn’t by working hard.
Apple is also sitting on hordes of cash, unwilling to pass any along to shareholders. They are also one of the worst, if not the worst, patent trolls out there. Most companies sue patent violators to get back royalties; Apple sues so that your product cannot be sold. While Apple makes a good product, it is because of their unethical behavior that I avoid anything they sell. Apple also has a cult following. Apple could sell iDirt and people would swear it is better than regular dirt and then pay twice as much for iDirt as they would for regular topsoil.
They are the perfect company for the eco-loons and hipsters. In fact, Apple follower and eco-loons go together like macaroni and cheese, peperoni and pizza, and peanut butter and jelly. Both are rich and both have believe their cause can do no wrong.
In the same vein as stockholders in the great financial meltdown where not told that their investments were at the mercy of corporations blackmailed by community organizers and the politicians at their beck and call?
I owned an iPhone 3GS some years back, I came to the conclusion that iTunes was Steve Jobs way of punishing consumers stupid enough to buy Apple products.
I ditched it and got a Windows phone, several phones later I’ve never looked back.
would someone please add to the 3 comments at this link, by posting the link to the 30 holocaust denier quotes (or whatever the latest tally is):
1 Mar: Scholars and Rogues: Brian Angliss: Roy Spencer attacks Anti-Defamation League for denouncing his use of “global warming Nazis”
The Anti-Defamation League clearly understands that a “denier” is someone who denies the truth of something. Unfortunately for his credibility and legacy, Roy Spencer does not.
Last week I wrote a post cataloguing six significant issues with Spencer’s original rant that sounded “more like paranoid ramblings than the words of someone who should be a respected elder statesman of climate science.” …
In his ADL diatribe, Spencer repeatedly wrote that the word “denier” was meant to invoke the Holocaust…
Just because Spencer repeatedly asserted that the word “denier” automatically invokes Holocaust denial doesn’t make the assertion true. As I’ve pointed out before, the word “denier” does not automatically invoke Holocaust denial. It simply means that someone is denying something. If Spencer wants to continue claiming to be a victim, he would do well to offer evidence in support of his claim, something that is in short supply in both this and his original rants. Emotional appeals and crocodile tears are not evidence…
http://scholarsandrogues.com/2014/03/01/roy-spencer-attacks-anti-defamation-league-for-denouncing-his-use-of-global-warming-nazis/
Crony Capitalism NEVER ends well for the people.
There are occasional well-publicized vulnerabilities, which Apple issues patches for. But the vast majority of Mac users are able to run with no anti-virus software at all, without problems. That’s not true in the PC world. I installed Sophos anti-virus on my Macs a year or two ago, after the scare you linked to, and so far all it has found are numerous Trojans that infect Windows machines, not Macs.
/Mr Lynn
artwest, even better why are batteries for Apple devices almost never user replaceable? Apple devices contribute more to landfills thanks to their idiotic “designs” that Fanboys think are “genius”, Ooooh, make it minimalist and white! So trendy and forward thinking. Jobs was “brilliant” and I too shall learn from him how to use my friends and rip them off.
http://gawker.com/359590/woz-ok-so-jobs-stole-from-me-but-he-also-made-the-ipod
Timmy, they are YOUR boss. Apple is dead.
RE: pat at 6:18 pm
I agree with pat here. “Denier” does not appear in the Philip Elmer-DeWitt column text. Nor is the word used in the NCPPR release. Nor in the Mac Observer.
The denier label seems to be a non-quote invented by a fortune.cnn editor who controls the headline.
pat says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Very interesting links. Thanks for posting them.
So according to Cook we cannot be critical of the global warming religion but it was OK for Steve Jobs to believe in alternative medicine to treat cancer?
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/02/news/companies/elkind_jobs.fortune/index.htm?
Pat, I posted the link to the now 37 quotes there but it was deleted,
http://www.populartechnology.net/2014/02/skeptics-smeared-as-holocaust-deniers.html
I don’t deny that the photograph makes it look like Tim Cook is sucking a lemon.
Samsung makes better phones and tablets. Any 64bit quadcore AMD powered PC is a better deal than a Mac.
crosspatch says:
This pretty much spells the end of Apple. Once they go from concentrating on great technology with a great user experience to doing things for ideological reasons, they’re gone. Jobs is not there anymore to keep them focused. They have just alienated a large portion of their potential customer and investor base.
Good comment as usual. But I don’t think Apple is going away. They just need someone focused on the bottom line. Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs, and he is causing grief for shareholders by not concentrating on profitability. Shares are down about 40%. Looking at the numbers, that just shouldn’t be the case.
Apple has a history of having a good CEO, then an inept CEO, then a good CEO… let’s hope they get a good CEO next time around. Because Tim Cook doesn’t have his eye on the ball.
Apple Loses Overall Market Share Despite iPhone Sales Boost
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/apple-loses-overall-market-share-despite-iphone-sales-boost.html/?a=viewall
Poptech
Haha, nice …an actual reason to buy an iPhone, just for your app.
Aw shucks Poptech 🙂
Interestingly there is a reason I didn’t write an Android version. Android make it painful to write an app which is larger than 50Mb, and the smallest I could compress the archive was around 70Mb, even with leaving out all the non email documents.
You have to break the app into chunks, and Google changed their mind midflight about how the chunks should be downloaded, which makes supporting different versions of Android a pain.
That sort of thing happens quite a lot on Android unfortunately – as a software environment, it is less stable than Apple iPhone.
I was considering putting duel boot linux on my macbook pro. Today I saw a series of samsung devices at best buy. Quality was good. Tomorrow, I will make the move and divest myself of the apple operating system. Thanks Tim for helping me make that decision….
There are plenty of fruit-bearing trees in the investment orchard of Wall St. so I can easily do without an APPL, but I hope this lunatic doesn’t Cook the goose that feeds him, because, investment or not, I won’t go without my Macs. Don’t diminish the company that Jobs bequeathed you, numbnuts.
I’ll do one better, I won’t buy their products either. I prefer my PC and Android phone any way.
Betcha the board forces him out over this, and over Gore’s dead body. This is some ferocious bad P.R.
Not only will I get out of Apple stock, which is an obvious move if the company is going to be this stupid, but I will also get out of Apple products. My current iPhone 4S will be my last Apple product, of many that I have purchased going all the way back to my first Apple IIc. I do not want my money going to people who insist on increasing the already heavy hand of government control in order to solve imaginary problems.
I heard Apple was going to invest in Tesla Motors in order to save the World from Global Warming. Because using electricity generated away from the point of consumption and then running off of a battery is supposed to be somehow better for the environment. You would expect a tech company would not be quite so stupid.
Anyway, once a company starts throwing money around for any reason other than improving product and increasing share, they are doomed. Apple had a good run, but nobody can afford to flush money down the toilet.
“With CyanogenMod installed or stock? I don’t own a Nexus 7, so I cannot comment but am incredibly skeptical.”
Stock, and it’s true of any Android device I’ve used. Even something as simple as scrolling a web page is much smoother on the iPad; I’ve yet to see any of the kind of graphics pauses that plague the Android UI.
Now, the Nexus has to process about 4x as many pixels as the iPad, but it has twice as many cores, and each core should be significantly faster.
I bought at $4, before Tim Cook even heard of Apple
I’d say I’d boycott Apple – except that I’ve never owned any Apple product and have absolutely no plans to ever own one. So in a sense, he’s right. He’s alienated a population that doesn’t buy his product anyway.
It’s OK, the Beeb will keep them in business … iTV Tax Funded.
@Paul in Sweden –
There would be no question that any senior executive or member of the board of directors of a publicly traded company who deliberately does things that are contrary to the shareholders’ interest would be guilty of a breach of fiduciary duty. The present climate Nazi administration in DC won’t touch Cook for that, but if there is a change of regime in 2016 he could well be putting himself at risk of prosecution.
As far as investing in Apple goes, no one in their right mind would invest in a company whose leadership puts pursuing a superstition before business due diligence Cook seems to be quite stupid and .careless enough to run Apple into the ground. Caveat investor!
Not only that, but the man’s tirade just positively reeks of the lowest sort of hypocrisy, right up (or actually down) there with that of his idol, Bloody Mess. I can smell it from here.
.. or for another iTake on the matter in iTabloid land.
Sorry, ludicously long link is:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570000/How-iSpend-licence-fee-Outrage-BBC-lavish-2-5million-4-000-iPhones-400-iPads-800-MacBooks-staff-just-two-years.html
Steve Jobs would never have issued such a statement.
Goldie says:
March 2, 2014 at 4:53 pm
Note to moderator – off topic
The post title includes: “ – get out of Apple stock ”
So, should I sell AAPL because Tim says so, or because the company wastes money, or because the products are less useful than other company’s products? Are the Company’s fundamentals good, or doesn’t that matter? In any case the only AAPL we own is via index funds and it is not sensible to sell that because Tim isn’t aware of how and why Earth’s systems work. Still, I do not own any of the Company’s products.
Your earlier comment, and comments of others, came close to this idea:
In a corporation, the board of directors, as a body, has a fiduciary responsibility for the decisions they make with regard to corporate assets and the rights of stockholders. It does seem that this is the proper issue for Tim and the Board to be aware of.
Or, is it that you think this ought not be a post on WUWT? It does seem to fit this statement from the banner:
“Commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news –”
It’s your business what phone and computers you use and what shares you buy. But I think some of you have missed the bigger picture.
Apple is generally much more profitable than its competitors. So this question of ROI on everything is, to me, not genuine. I also assume that those who accuse Apple of overpricing are not shareholders.
Apple does things which I disagree with strongly: this Product RED initiative. I do not for one moment accept that HIV has anything to do with AIDS. So what am I going to do, boycott Apple for that? Get real.
As for AGW, I don’t know yet if it’s true but I do believe it’s worth my time investigating, just as I have done with AIDS. I hope that I can learn a lot about climate from people here, even if some of you today have exhibited disappointing attitudes.
If dumb ass Cook serves the market with better longer lasting Apple products I forgive this him for his incredible ignorance but they don’t. The life cycle of their computer products has declined in a terrible way.
So screw them. It’s Hackintosh for me next time.
Steve Jobs was “insanely great”. Tim Cook is half the CEO Jobs was.
Who needs profits when gay rights and global warming (I just drove through zero-F weather in Nebraska!), and whatever else. Let the stock go to zero as long as he does the right thing.
Perhaps he can give condoms to the starving children in Africa which seems to be Bill and Melinda Gate’s response. Various Linux distributions are looking better all the time.
Anyhow, Apple is going down the drain anyway, just like Microsoft and Samsung.
Market share and profits eaten by Google, see the publications at the Boom Bust Blog from Richie Middleton.
From what Pat says (March 2, 2014 at 6:18 pm) it does not appear that Tim Cook actually used the term ‘d*niers’. Did he issue a statement afterward? The reports say he flew off the handle at the question from the conservative group (a perfectly reasonable question for an investor to ask, of course), but nothing beyond that. Reprehensible, to be sure, and maybe even foolish. But not quite what the headline here claims.
/Mr Lynn
Most folks buy their first computer based on what a friend has, or on their work or school requirements. After that, changing from a PC to a Mac, or vice-versa, is like learning a new language. Most people don’t want to learn a new operating system, so they stay with the one they know. As time goes by, they get more and more entrenched.
That is why Apple won’t go out of business. They have a very loyal user base that does not want to re-learn a new OS. And really, Macs are pretty user friendly.
But a CEO like Tim Cook can cause a lot of damage to the brand. The mere fact that he is getting sidetracked into globaloney nonsense shows his lack of focus — a very bad trait in a CEO.
Apple should focus on what it does best. But with Cook at the helm that probably won’t happen. And of course there’s Algore meddling in the background in order to continue enriching himself.
If Cook and Gore were forced out, it would be the best thing for the company’s shareholders and customers. It will be interesting seeing how low Cook’s inept leadership takes the company, before it divests itself of him.
Mac (the irony, heh) nailed it at 5:30pm:
“… a publicly held company refuses disclosure of relevant operating expenses… .
THAT is what will result in a big bite out of Apple. Prehhttty dumb.
*****************************************************************
Attention all Enviroprofiteers:
Your CEO’s short-sighted publicity* stunt = LONG TERM LOSS.
*(authors who want to sell books file frivolous lawsuits for P.R. …..
used car dealers dress like clowns and dance with chimpanzees….
…corporations needing P.R. say outrageous things in public…..)
*****************************************************************
Sorry, Al Baby (and the rest of that investor pool) — no matter HOW loudly you scream about “deniers” and junk like that… WINDMILLS AND SOLAR AND “GREEN” energy stock prices are heading doooowwwwwwnnnn…. into the region to which you appear to be headed someday and where it very well may BE “millions of degrees.”
Bwah, ha, ha, ha, haaaaaaaaaa!
Yeah. The people running Apple are idiots. And I’d be happy to dump my Mac, except for two things: I spent years fighting with Windows to keep it running, got tired of it, went to Mac, and never looked back; and, also spent time with Linux, and it requires even more work and dedication than Windows does. Besides, Microsoft supports global warming, too. It hasn’t told it’s stockholders to get bent, but….
Poptech on March 2, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Well, this is well OT, but no, I’m talking by own experience and I’m not confuced about what’s dead remaining or cached in memory. A terminated task may be cached for later use but is not allowed to remain in regular memory when fully stopped or even crashed. It doesn’t make any sense with a double/multiple set of non active prog’s still remaining in the memory … That’s pure sloppy programming if it’s allowed! (Remember the Atari bomb’s, Amiga Guru Med’s and early Windows Blue Death, all due to “out of memory” problems caused by limited programming skills?)
The original purpose of a software cache is to expand internal memory (DRAM, that was limited due to high cost at the time but still so needed for functionallity) using a temporary file on a harddrive. Today, in proportion the memory cost issue is far gone, also any issues regarding speed, so there’s not much sense caching at high levels. Internal CPU caching is quite enough today! (Using 8GiB internal memory in my own Win7/64-box and along with other tuning, the file cache is turned of, as the cache file is basically symbolic in size even at high loads – no noticable speed difference, with or without.)
There are several examples of app’s incl. those from Google and Samsung, that remain both as terminated in main memory and in the cache pool at the same time for no reason (rebooting solves the memory clogging problem temporarily though). That’s a pure waste of resources! Some of the apps even restarts quietly directly after termination … (Among those apps/bloatware that I don’t need at all and I’ve manage to deactivate, “Memo S” (Samsung) sometimes starts hidden anyway, even twice at the same time … Discovered when the mobile suddenly started to generate disturbing drop outs when listening to music …)
Adding to the multiple-app-copies-in-memory problem, some “programmers” thinks/believes preloading software is a good thing, as it looks like the app starts faster then it actually do – a couple of those apps may clogg the memory quite quickly and causes as a result the system to slow down, sometime quite noticable. You’ll never know ahead if you install any of those, before checking the memory afterwards. The “programmer’s” will not tell you …
So, the limits are not within the hardware, you’ll find them in lacking programming techniques. Not only at app/program level, but also at OS level. Faster CPU’s and cheaper memory isn’t an excuse for sloppy programming (something Microsoft – The Patch Masters – still has not discovered yet …)
Poptech on March 2, 2014 at 6:13 pm
The issue is known and addressed on the forum …
Mystery diners spotlighted a restaurant manager that told a customer to go elsewhere. The owners fired him on the spot.
All that was asked for was transparency, which is the right of every shareholder. To know where the money is going. Instead of providing an answer, the CEO tells them to get rid of their stocks.
The CEO of a company has a legal obligation to make money for the shareholders. If going green makes money, then the shareholders have a right to know. If it loses money, they still have a right to know.
Poptech on March 2, 2014 at 6:13 pm
… missed …
The updates are not done with any PC’s, only the initial installation! It’s done directly in the mobile via Internet … (Don’t you know …?)
The request to show how much is being spent on non-business related activities is reasonable. The response was ‘if you are not prepared to trust me, invest elsewhere.’
So, do you trust Cook? You can’t reasonably invest in a company that hides from its owners where the money goes. That is BS.
For the record I have never owned any Apple product. I know they have a vast sum of cash outside the USA which they do not want to repatriate because it would be taxed. That is a liability I don’t want to invest in.
I’ve never owned a thing from Apple but did eye-off the original Mac as it was an impressive and a revolutionary product at the time. But I’ve not seen anything from them since I could say that about.
But whatever happened to intelligent people being open to the full range of viable explanations that are consistent with observations? Why do these weird hardline geeks feel some imperative to select a preferred truth when they can’t possibly know what the truth will turn out to be?
And no trace of reasonable doubt is in evidence, its full-on rampaging zealotry, even when mere weather variability might maybe give one pause with regard to such precipitous gratuitous position-taking.
Is this wise? GIGO based decision-making? Is that what constitutes awareness with such people? “Jump the shark”, comes to mind for some reason.
I guess we should not be too surprised given Apple’s stable of consumer products defines the quintessence of style-over-substance.
Hope you guys are staying warm in the deep south.
john another says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Crony Capitalism NEVER ends well for the people.
john,
True. But the actions of half-Cook’d Apple are not ‘crony capitalism’.
Their actions are accurately termed Crony Socialism… or Crony Gaiaism, if you prefer.
Alternately, OrGaiaism, for the folks who really, really get hot and bothered about ‘saving the planet’.
I don’t think this is just to appeal to the liberals-in-charge of the USA right now. Jobs picked his successor well in terms of someone with misplaced idealism. I’ll bet that, if real conservatives were to hold the presidency and a majority in Congress, Cook would still be promoting every hair-brained liberal nutcase idea that comes along and fighting them tooth-and-nail. Same as Jobs. They’re Gaia-worshipping nutjobs. They’ll be more than happy to sacrifice their shareholders and employees for the sake of their eco-religion.
If my car was an Apple I’d have to buy Apple gasoline, Apple tires, and Apple spare parts plus drive on Apple roads paying an Apple tax per mile.
I wonder if Rush will mention anything about Tim Cook today?
pat says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:36 pm
“… Just because Spencer repeatedly asserted that the word “denier” automatically invokes Holocaust denial doesn’t make the assertion true. As I’ve pointed out before, the word “denier” does not automatically invoke Holocaust denial. It simply means that someone is denying something. …”
>>>
Disagree, it’s a propaganda hook that was designed and selected specifically to press emotive historical buttons and evoke associated sentiment and thus brand an accused ‘denier’ with overtones of dangerous and potentially calamitous extremism.
And it does EXACTLY that.
This is not something that’s used in relation to disagreement over any other form of scientific theory and disagreement.
It’s a term deliberately selected to appeal to the lowest comprehension and education level within an audience and to accommodate the shallowest levels of anti-think, as it’s repeatedly flopped-out, penis-like, amid otherwise attempted reasoned discussion.
With respect, it seems provincial to naive to suggest it’s just an innocent juxtaposition of terms.
I’ve never cared for the whole ‘Apple Thing’. The cool guy in the ad as opposed to the nerdy guy; I guess the nerdy guy is me. There are many I-phone users who are non-political but when it comes to the OS used at home if it’s a Mac there’s a 97% certainty you’ll be dealing with a liberal.
Actually, John Servais, global warming/climate change was a major component, if not the largest component, of why we went to Apple. Interestingly, we put the same question to General Electric, and General Electric said “yes.”
Apple is not particularly green. Either Cook is deluding himself about how green it is or he was using the occasion to act angry, thereby sending the message that it is doing all kinds of green things. Unfortunately for him, the media (not just Fortune, it is all over the place, including Drudge) is reporting that he told all “deniers” to get out of his stock (he didn’t, actually), and that’s bad PR.
Anyone interested in the shareholder proposal we put in at Apple can read it here (go to proposal #9): http://investor.apple.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1193125-14-8074&CIK=320193
The Greenbiz article is the usual tripe. Our agreement with GE is on the Securities and Exchange Commission website at: http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/cf-noaction/14a-8/2013/nationalcenter123013-14a8.pdf
I use Apple and Microsoft products on a daily basis and really to be honest they’re not that different these days. They’re both gravitating towards simplicity and touchscreeniness and the software for one works pretty much like the software for the other. Apple is way ahead in portable tech though, and I’m not sure Microsoft will ever be able to catch up at this point. And let’s face it, for 90% of people that is what what they want. A little device they can carry around. Looking up news, sending photos, keeping in touch, checking Facebook etc is all the mass market really cares about, and Apple is making those things so easy (and stylish.) Go ahead and swear off Apple, but they’re not going anywhere, friends! 🙂
Tim Cook seems to be doing an excellent job in keeping Apple lean and mean. They are raking in cash. His strongest skill is keeping things running smoothly and Steve Jobs recognized that and put him in charge of Apple before he died. I also don’t think there’s any think inherently wrong with sustainabilty either as long as it’s being used as a sensible way to reuse waste materials (as opposed to it being used as a way to stop production in the first place.)
As much of a fan of Apple as I am, I really, really hope that they aren’t taking a stance on global warming being mankind’s fault, because I genuinely couldn’t remain a user of Apple products in that case. The articles mentioned have a lot of words being put into other people’s mouths. I think Apple wants to do good– if they believe that doing good means fighting global warming, that’s just a sign that they’ve been persuaded by warmist nonsense. I have hope that the truth will prevail in the end. That’s our jobs as skeptics..
It would be tough moving away from Apple after defending them for 20 years! And seeing them come back from near-death to where they are now.
This was rambling and I’m going to bed, goodnight WUWTers
Interesting. Lots of tech people here on various issues. I have two PC laptops and a desktop, an old Motorola flip phone, two MacBooks and an old iPhone that will be replaced with a non Apple product when it dies. Being only a little bit techy and very old fashioned, I use different devices for different tasks. Microsoft tried discontinuing NT but some of us are still using it. They tried doing an “Apple” and forcing people to upgrade but a lot of users like me just said no, and kept on using NT (and XP). Microsoft gave in to user demands but Apple forces upgrades. That position is going to end with my iPhone being filmed in a field with a bullet going through it. For me it is the “apps” and my user requirements that are important. I actually run some XP programs on my Macs using and emulator because I like the apps and I can move data back and forth between my old PC’s and my Macs. The iPhone is a power hog and so are the Macs so I don’t know where they get the “green” thing from. I have TWO external battery packs for my iPhone cause it only lasts two or three hours per charge at 20 C below zero and searching for a signal. My MacBooks are similar power hogs and can’t go far from a power source. My Dell and Acer both do better outside in the cold. Course, Apple being used to California weather …
Not very green in my experience but what the heck, lots of sun energy in California … oh wait, aren’t they importing power and other energy sources??
Ah well … “horses for courses” and “better the devil you know …”
(2010 – 54% of electricity produced from natural gas, 90% of gas came from out of state.)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/california-power-supply-affected-by-extreme-cold-in-canada-u-s-1.2526347
http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/overview/energy_sources.html
Republicans and Democrats – NEITHER “prefer” Apple iPhones over Android or vice versa…
http://macdailynews.com/2012/03/28/u-s-apple-product-users-split-evenly-between-republicans-and-democrats-half-of-u-s-households-own-at-least-one-apple-product/
Rarely will the companies I deal with be companies that share my politics and my worldview.
I can handle that. [trimmed, racist and uncalled-for.] If I loved Apple OS, I would stick to it despite their love of cult-liberalism.
Otherwise, you end up like some progressives I know who have no company they will buy anything from, but still do since the alternative is impossible.
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. Those of us who do are not responsible if you at the same time beat your wife.
A CEO forgetting that he does not own the company; and he has to account for what he is doing with SH money…
And made in China where coal is king. Funny!
Apple has has some bad management in the past and here in the present. Cook is no Steve Jobs and never will be. Maybe Cook should answer why he builds his products in China with no environmental laws and for pennies while reselling at outrageous prices. Cook doesn’t frighten me away from Apple products – I’m using Apple to kick him where the sun don’t shine. That there is how to properly use an Apple. As always Apple will survive this dead beat like it did the others.
Or simply install Linux. It is very simple, the machine is as good as new afterwards. I’ve done it several times already, not looking back. Posting this from Kubuntu.
Worst Apple news I’ve EVER read. I always doubted TIm Cook could guide this company from watching Apple product events and his guarded petulance proves he is unfit for public leadership. Steve, you blew this choice for ‘jobs’ as your follow up. Tim Cook views the world thru an ultra progressive mindset that despises traditional values and concepts like capitalism so he can ubiquitously ‘Save the Whales’ (likely his first ’cause’ as a.college student!) Sad.
Poptech –
i just linked to the scholars & rogues page & i see only 4 comments (one more than earlier today), not the 37 u say u saw there.
not surprised if your comment/link was deleted, tho.
With due respect, what Cook actually said was “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.”
Nothing here that would not appear to be within the remit of any CEO comfortable in the support of an empowering Board?
empty gesture design to help the ‘hip’ image of Apple to keep the [sheep] on-board. And its empty because the sheep would by a turd if they stuck a Apple logo on it , some would say they already have.
I would hazard a guess that Cookie has had a “Ratner” moment. His outburst will be put down to the fact that he was “tired & emotional”. The AP photo is self explanatory. He clagged himself.
Poo has its own timetable & Cookie couldn’t help defecating on his shareholders doorsteps.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573380/Doing-a-Ratner-and-other-famous-gaffes.html
ATTN JOSH:
jdgalt says:
March 2, 2014 at 3:35 pm
A cartoon with Al Gore’s face on the worm in the apple wouldn’t be out of line.
I think that ruthless tax avoidance is why Apple has so much cash – they do everything in their powers not to pay corporation tax and have hoarded cash just as Governments have had balance of payments crises. They aren’t alone in that, but if you add up corporate cash piles + government deficits since 2005 you’d see the quickest way to slash public sector deficits……..
Here is why small investors and institutions should get out of Apple stock.
The Apple CEO is willing to be misleading about the green policies of the company in public.
•Apple outsources the manufacturing emissions to Foxconn but the emissions are still there because of Apple.
•Apple builds in redundancy for its products to sell more.
•Apple uses rare earth metals unsustainably.
The Apple CEO does not let himself be bound by responsibility to shareholders and will not answer pertinent questions about the costs of the green policies of the company. Therefore the Apple CEO is willing to mislead the stock market about the impact of the policies of the company
If the Apple CEO is willing to mislead the stock market over small things, why not other things?
So there is no reason to believe any financial report from Apple.
QED: The Apple CEO is willing to follow Enron’s accountability procedures.
And that is why small investors and institutions should get out of Apple stock.
I understand all of Apple products are made in China.
All things considered,
The US upper crust hypocrisy runs deep.
Paul
our MSM is so CAGW-infested in Australia, the public hasn’t got a clue about what it’s all costing them, now and – even moreso – in the future, so they probably won’t even be angry about this!
3 Mar: Australian: AAP: Senators reject bill to scrap Climate Change Authority
Legislation to dismantle the Climate Change Authority was knocked back in the upper house today by Labor and the Australian Greens…
Greens leader Christine Milne said Australia could continue to receive high quality independent advice on global warming and a rigorous review of the renewable energy target.
“I am delighted that today the Senate has defeated Tony Abbott’s push to try and tear apart a science-based recommendation and go with his anti-science obsession,’’ she told reporters…
If West Australians at the upcoming Senate election reduce the number of coalition senators, the Senate would then have the numbers to reject government efforts to remove Labor’s climate change legislation, she said…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/senators-reject-bill-to-scrap-climate-change-authority/story-e6frg6xf-1226843760241
3 Mar: Sydney Morning Herald: Chris Taylor: Tim Cook to climate change deniers: get out of Apple stock
This post was originally published on Mashable.
(end of article: Mashable is the largest independent news source covering digital culture, social media and technology.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/tim-cook-to-climate-change-deniers-get-out-of-apple-stock-20140303-33uka.html
Perry says:
March 2, 2014 at 11:53 pm
I would hazard a guess that Cookie has had a “Ratner” moment. His outburst will be put down to the fact that he was “tired & emotional”. The AP photo is self explanatory. He clagged himself.
———————
Yeah, Ratner was the first thing I thought of when I read this hehe. Lets hope that it gets renamed to a a ‘Cooked Apple’
Stacey says:
March 2, 2014 at 3:45 pm
Companies like Apple and Microsoft bleat on about sustainability.
1 Upgrade from an I phone 4 to 5 and you have to have new cables for your computer at work and in car charger. Also if you have a docking station you’ll need a new adapter.
2 Microsoft stopping support for Windows XP means that many businesses will have to dispose of perfectly good machines?
=========
yup.I have “saved’ 7 perfectly good pcs from the tip in the last month, in a very small town. due to the idiot win8 requirements.
so?
I plan to load em with Linux and give them away to anyone who needs a computer.
and am swapping all mu units to linux
and now WILL sell the applelaptop and 2 benchtops.
An Apple which is rotten to its Gore?
u know a firm is doomed when it gets hijacked by dogma not innovation. looks like people using it as a platform for soapboxing their munch scream?
The way I see the various tech offerings is like this: Microsoft, a bit vague and fumbling at times. Google, useful but malevolent. Apple, pure evil.
The basis of the Apple analysis is the hype, the prices, the horrible ‘experience’ of using one of their locked down, limited and illogical products. But most of all because they are the biggest tax avoiders on the planet – and not just in the US. Yes, I know tax avoidance is not illegal per se, but it is in my book utterly immoral. I will not invest in, nor support through purchasing, such a disgusting corporation.
All this article does is reinforce my opinion.
So how much middle eastern oil money is tied up in Apple then
Nedders speaks with common sense ….
——————
Nedders says:
March 2, 2014 at 11:50 pm
With due respect, what Cook actually said was “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.”
Nothing here that would not appear to be within the remit of any CEO comfortable in the support of an empowering Board?
Does this mean that Apple will no longer be using materials that are by-products of the petro-chemical and mining industries?
Enquiring minds want to know…
People are detecting cult-like behavior at Apple? Stop the presses! Problem is their master, St. Steve, has joined the eternal cloud, leaving behind a man bereft of charisma and shockingly naive, ignorant and hypocritical regarding climate matters.
Apple Cult Gets Personal? Investors must be worried that the Apple board has been taken over by climate hysterics. What should they do?
Why Investors Should Short Apple and Buy Samsung
“Can’t innovate any more, my ass!”
Apple’s head of marketing, Phil Schiller, came across a little defensive in his speech at last year’s Macworld conference. I can see why he might feel that way. For the last decade, Apple set the pace when it comes to consumer electronic gizmos… but now, its competitors are closing in.
In fact, Apple’s glory days could be over…
Don’t get me wrong – Apple is a great business. But I have severe misgivings about its longevity, and the way it treats its customers. Last week, I seriously looked at shorting Apple’s stock… but in the end, I thought better of it. After all, Apple’s products are still selling like hotcakes, and it’s making great strides into the emerging markets.
Apple released a trading update… and boy did I wish I’d put my money down on a short position! It reported record profits, but the stock took an 8% whack.
Apple’s problem isn’t sales. It’s got plenty of those. The problem is growth – or lack thereof. And if Apple is no longer considered a growth stock, then there needs to be a fundamental revaluation of the shares.
Apple is no better than Ryanair
At first sight, Apple’s customer service may look nothing like Ryanair’s. After all, Apple’s loyal fan-base seems to love the products and I’m pretty sure that Apple doesn’t flagrantly abuse its customers like Ryanair. But there are some similarities.
First, customers are loyal because they’re forced to be. Apple operates what’s known as a “walled garden.” Apple controls its products’ operating software and also decides what applications and services you’re allowed to use.
Like Ryanair, once you’re on its plane, you’re limited to what it wants to offer you. £3 for a bottle of water anyone?
But it’s not just customer services that Apple controls with its iron fist. It’s the actual hardware too. One of the big reasons I’m against Apple’s mobile gadgetry (which is the most important aspect of Apple’s business) is because of how limiting the stuff is.
Take the latest iPhone. It’ll cost you £50 more for a higher spec unit if you want to increase the memory from a measly 8Gb to 16Gb. Other customers can just add a memory card to their phone. I just upgraded my phone’s memory by 32Gb for less than £15.
Of course, this means Apple makes very decent margins. In fact, Apple’s gross margin comes in at just under 40% – that’s at least double what any other hardware maker might expect.
Apple is clearly profitable. But is this sustainable? I propose not. There are now cheaper and better alternatives.
The fall of a giant
Apple just can’t keep up. Their market share is falling – from about 18% last year, I see it falling to 15% by the end of this year. Though that may not sound like a lot, in reality it’s a massive drop.
As market share falls, the business will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with Google’s Android offering.
Fans of Google know how it’s using cloud technology to integrate the user experience. They are working on documents on their laptop, phone and tablet, seamlessly in the “cloud.” I know Apple offers something similar – but it’s not as joined up as Google.
Apple’s Research and Development budget has doubled in the last two years. But still market share dwindles. The fact is, Google doesn’t need to spend gazillions on trying to keep up. Much of the R&D function is effectively done by outsiders. They don’t need to control the whole process. Not only is this approach cheaper, but it produces better results.
As I survey the market for Android devices, I see products that could suit just about anyone’s requirements. Literally thousands of devices. With Apple on the other hand, you have to pick from a very limited range indeed.
Of course, Apple has been able to get away with all of this in the past. After all, it was the innovator. It seemed to know what the punter wanted before the punter knew it himself.
But now, it looks like the game could be up. Manufacturers across the world are innovating like mad. Apple can’t keep up, and a “walled garden” approach simply isn’t good enough.
Apple’s biggest hardware rival, Samsung, announced that it is to launch 60 new retail stores across Europe. It’s talking about a “powerful new retail concept” that will include an “exciting new customer experience with merges retail and technology innovations.”
I guess what it’s talking about is an experience not unlike Apple’s wonder stores?
Apple is going to get hit from all sides. Watch out as the great innovator gets out-innovated.
*****
Why Samsung will win the war with Apple
Apple has been all over the news. Sales are falling: can they come up with a new set of gadgets to stem the tide… perhaps an Apple watch, a TV set?
Who knows? What we do know is they’ve just caved in to investor demands and are set to use their massive cash pile to embark on the biggest share buyback ever witnessed.
What a pathetic move!
Meanwhile, arch-rival Samsung has just announced stellar results… cash is rapidly building up on its balance sheet too. The only thing is, they’ve got far greater vision about what to do with all these lovely excess funds.
This is a fascinating story. It just about sums up the difference between East and West. Apple is a brilliant company, no doubt. But when it comes to investment vision – the developing Eastern business community has a thing or two to teach the West.
Innovation is great, but imitation is better
The thing about Samsung is that it has a fantastic business plan – one that is just as impressive as Apple’s. If Apple’s philosophy is innovate and create; then Samsung’s is probably more like innovate and recreate.
The idea of imitation being somehow a second-best business plan is wrong. I remember when I got caught up in a conversation with a fancy lawyer specializing in start-up businesses. Only these businesses were set up explicitly to copy the business models of successful pioneering firms.
If some innovative company had just created the latest must-have gadget, then this lawyer would set out to see exactly how it could be imitated without infringing any patents. In fact, he also told me that quite often, the pioneering business hadn’t done their patent homework… often the imitator actually ended up with more legal protection than the original!
Like it or loathe it, the point is the imitator’s business model is less risky, and stands a pretty good chance of success. Samsung is proof of that. In fact, in the mobile phone market, they’re stealing market share from Apple – in many ways, they’re already more successful.
As Apple’s profits fell, Samsung announced a 50% rise in profits. This quarter they pulled in £4.1bn – that’s just this quarter!
The key thing is…
What are they doing with all this cash?
Something that hasn’t hit the radar of most investors is the somewhat smaller news titbit about Samsung…Samsung has entered the London real estate market. It was announced in January that Samsung is buying 30 Crown Place, the 19-storey tower next to Liverpool St station.
Readers with a long memory will note that back in September 2012 Samsung was investing in London-listed Cluff Gold. As part of the deal, Samsung is getting future gold production, straight from the mine. This is more than securing supply for its electronics. It’s an investment move.
And what does Apple do with its hoard? Sure, they’re investing in innovation… but then with the rest, they’re buying back their own shares.
Not only might that be a bad investment… if Apple’s profits continue to fall, then maybe the shares have a lot further to fall… but it also shows a lack of vision.
I like Samsung’s vision. It’s not dissimilar to the great US industrialists of yore. The Carnegies, Fords and Rockefellers built massive empires, including significant investment portfolios.
And just look at the sorts of investment Samsung is making. Gold and real estate. These are “real” or tangible investments. According to Bloomberg data, Samsung trades on nine times last year’s profits, but looking forward, it’s valued at a mere seven times this year’s prospective profits. If anyone should be buying back their own shares, it’s this lot! I don’t know why the stock is rated so low, maybe investors are a little nervous about South Korea’s agitating northern neighbor.
In any case, Samsung is a great company – and part of that greatness is in having faith in itself to build an empire – one that extends into the real, tangible world. I suspect that after a few years, Apple, and the general investing public at large, will wish they’d placed more emphasis on tangible asset investing and perhaps a little less faith in paper.
Good on you Samsung! And for any readers working at the City law firm Pinsent Mason or Crown Financial – in case you didn’t know, Samsung is your new landlord.
So, Apple has gone full Statist? Will they now produce the iRunAwayFromApple?
Stacey says: March 2, 2014 at 3:45 pm “Microsoft stopping support for Windows XP means that many businesses will have to dispose of perfectly good machines?”
Sixteen months ago I bought a new HDD for $80 and replaced the WinXP OS HDD with Fedora linux rather than endure Windoze’s death throes. M$ is leading the way for Scrapple to follow, FORWARD into oblivion.
The first – and definitely the last – Apple product I bought was an Apple 2.
Happy days….
Chris
I get the anger against Apple, but the either/or polarised mentality is surely what’s already so braindead about environmentalism, no?
Ie. Apple allies with thing I hate, therefore must hate Apple.
Like, can’t be an environmentalist AND be skeptical about AGW.
“Must hate anyone skeptical of AGW!”
Apple is one of the few IT companies that has made the customer experience so important that they are willing to ditch their own products in favour of better ones. Just compare the Windows phones that were out there for many years with giant screen wasting “Start” buttons like a desktop, and on which I spend half an hour trying to show smart people how to navigate their email using a stylus and drop down menus, to the iOS which I could show grandma who’s never used a computer, how to use in 5 minutes. That’s the sort of from top to bottom design feat which Apple is very good at. They make a lot of sacrifices to pursue that sort of thing, and with the iPhone, people voting with their wallets have shows that it is good. Ballmer’s “they have zero chance of success” was totally wrong. Blackberry who were king? They didn’t see it coming. Android? Underwent a late in the day UI overhaul.
Overpriced? Used to be very true in 1997.
Samsung? Well fine, hate Apple, so love Samsung, until they do something, I dunno, what was that other Korean company that was caught spying, uploading the filenames of all USB media plugged into its Smart TVs? Or the Sony rootkit? Or so many other “evil” things these companies do. Love Google? Oh wait, they’re sorta evil now. Love open Android? Oh wait, it isn’t so open anymore, and people are wondering if Samsung can afford to fork it, losing its access to Google’s proprietary ecosystem.
So um… it is California, they have their Green aura, and it is annoying that Apple is just perpetuating the myth.
AGW is politics with appeal to “reality” in the guise of pseudoscience. Apple have a marketing image to maintain, but for their part, they have done some very cool design stuff, mostly in HOW they combine technologies (it isn’t like they invented multitouch or 3G). Give them credit where it is due.
And dump their stock if it makes you feel better. I think I preferred it when Greenpeace was still picketing Apple’s exhibitions.
Stefan says:
March 3, 2014 at 3:36 am
” to the iOS which I could show grandma who’s never used a computer, how to use in 5 minutes. That’s the sort of from top to bottom design feat which Apple is very good at. They make a lot of sacrifices to pursue that sort of thing, and with the iPhone, people voting with their wallets have shows that it is good.”
It’s not called “sacrifices”; it’s called R&D budget. It’s a damn company, not a religious cult, even though it behaves like one.
JBirks says:
March 3, 2014 at 2:53 am
“People are detecting cult-like behavior at Apple? Stop the presses! Problem is their master, St. Steve, has joined the eternal cloud, leaving behind a man bereft of charisma and shockingly naive, ignorant and hypocritical regarding climate matters.”
The Ersatz CEO is just playing to the hipster base.
If Apple has hopped onto the CAGW bandwagon, then maybe it isn’t a bad idea to get out their stock. It indicates poor decision making at the top.
No real surprises here. Arrogance? Check. Unaccountability to the stockholders? Check. I’m smarter than you? Check. “We don’t have to show you no stinking badges” attitude? Check.
@DirkH
I mean “sacrifices” as for example, Jobs slashing their R&D projects and upsetting a lot of employees, in order to focus.
Stefan says:
March 3, 2014 at 4:42 am
“I mean “sacrifices” as for example, Jobs slashing their R&D projects and upsetting a lot of employees, in order to focus.”
Oh. “Sacrifices” reminded me of volcanoes and virgins. Looks like I misunderstood that.
@DirkH
I should use less emotive words. Too many words have multiple meanings! But the dictionary confirms it also has a non religious one.
“Mr. Cook made it very clear to me that if I, or any other investor, was more concerned with return on investment than reducing carbon dioxide emissions, my investment is no longer welcome at Apple,”
Sorry Mr. Cook but while your company has a future making money, people will buy into it. Otherwise you sound like a company dictator – another green Nazi?
When Apple starts to lose money (and like most fashion icons it will) you will be hoping for help from anyone you can.
So long and thanks for the stupidity.
The last time I used Apple kit was in the early 80’s, Apple II, when they were still technically interesting. Just about everything since then has be a triumph of form over function. Overpriced and underwhelming kit for narcissists, from the fashion accessory company….
Who needs them anyway ?…
The writing is on the wall to make a lot of money shorting apple stock. They have lost their great leader and motivator, they are not concerned with profit, they are being infiltrated with gov. bureaucrats. It is not even the first time this has happened to apple.
I guess that’s an invitation to not buy it’s iCrap, also, right?
In a Jamaican accent:
Never had an Apple product. Never will. Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa.
I for one am not a fan of either Google or Apple. I’ll stick to my Blackberry. Despite rumours to the contrary, they aren’t going anywhere, they don’t track everything I do with my phone.
Apple manufactures how much of their product in the only country that emits more CO2 than the US, and he is worried about skeptics investing in Apple? No mirrors to look into at the Cook house I guess. Earth to Apple – it’s not an increase in the mean surface temperature that makes your plants sweatshops.
Yet another reason to never send a single penny to Apple. Nevermind that their products are inferior AND overpriced.
Joseph Murphy says:
March 3, 2014 at 5:19 am
The writing is on the wall to make a lot of money shorting apple stock. They have lost their great leader and motivator, they are not concerned with profit, they are being infiltrated with gov. bureaucrats. It is not even the first time this has happened to apple.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But it WILL be the last time. Steve Jobs isn’t around to rescue them from disaster again.
Cook lost his cool, and should apologize. That may not be enough, though. He might need to step down as CEO. In a way, he was probably correct though, with his claim that Apple’s sustainability programs, otherwise known as greenwashing is good for their bottom line. Image is important, and being “green” is important to their customer base. Of course, it’s all a sham, and that was what NCPPR were exposing.
Come on, now. This is nothing new. Steve Jobs was a brilliant marketeer, an obsessive manager, a genius at taking new technology and combining it into cool products that people loved, and also a bona-fide California kook, into New Age fads and leftwing political causes. Steve is the one who put the insufferable Algore onto Apple’s board. Apple has always been Politically Correct. Tim Cook is just continuing the tradition in his stolid, unimaginative way.
Nedders (March 2, 2014 at 11:50 pm) summed it up correctly:
If his Board thought he was out of line, he’d be gone in a minute. In point of fact, it is an article of faith among the Left that corporations ought to be ‘socially responsible’, not just profit-makers. Apple currently makes pots of money, so they can afford to tow the Politically-Correct line, and even let their CEO become indignant at the suggestion he might deviate. In that culture, it’s good politics, maybe even good business—you know, staying on the correct side of certain folks in Washington, DC and Sacramento.
/Mr Lynn
PS Re the claim that Macintosh computers embody style over substance, I have Macs from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s that still run. I don’t use them, because my 27″ quad-core i7 iMac is a lot faster and more Internet-capable. But Macs, even though they cost more, have always had a longer life-span and ROI than comparable PCs. And the idea that Mac users are all liberals is just nonsense. Just ask Rush.
Poor Cook, stupid enough to think he’s only speaking to 3% of the people based on “settled science”. At the Board of Directors meeting he’ll say..” but I was playing up to the 97%,. That’s good business!” It will take awhile for the erosion in stock value from this gaffe to sink in but it indeed will. I have 3 Macs at work used for design..stubbornly thinking that Apple makes the best design software (which they no longer do). They’re do for an upgrade soon. To PC!!
This morning on CNBC live interview Becky Quick and Warren Buffett: Buffet looked like a cat keeping a mouse in his mouth when he talked about climate change. The bottom line is that, he invested in the insurance business knowing that fueled by hysteria the premiums will go up while actual “climate change” disaster related expenses will remain the same, since, as Buffet said, there is no effect of climate change on economy. So, as always, first and foremost some smart people are making huge money while relatively few laymen, -women, and children, including some geeks like us –“deniers” are quietly opposing. Second, a large number of academia people profit getting their tenure, research funding, honors, and supply of graduate research assistants to help “carry the torch”. This is off balance and time for a swing back. We, the public, can perhaps start by demanding our state and federal governments to stop supporting AGW-disruption-change and then demand from the universities expulsion of all the alarmists from their academic positions.
RaiderDingo says:
March 2, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Why don’t apple let me change to battery for my Ipod instead of having to chuck it?
I wish someone had asked the CEO that excellent question.
iTunes.
gymnosperm says:
March 2, 2014 at 8:30 pm
“Steve Jobs would never have issued such a statement.”
No, he would probably throw a hissy fit, break down in tears in front of the board and go off and sulk until he got his own way.
Is my comment that bad?
/#comment-1581342 March 3, 2014 at 5:01 am
is still in moderation.
Cook should ask Oprah Winfrey about the wisdom of getting involved in partisan politics, if he can find her.
Cook may have forced upon himself a Dixie Chick Moment. Quite a few people may just decide to ditch their iPhones for Droids. Not even Apple is so well off they can write off 5-10% of their customer base. The Deniers may decide to get out of Apple products altogether.
If Mr. Cook is lucky the whole Apple enterprise will be bought by Samsung!
Makes me even more glad that I’ve always gone with Android.
“If his Board thought he was out of line, he’d be gone in a minute. In point of fact, it is an article of faith among the Left that corporations ought to be ‘socially responsible’, not just profit-makers. Apple currently makes pots of money, so they can afford to tow the Politically-Correct line,..”
Everything you say is true. But, it behooves Cooke to realize that eventually all good things come to an end. And it is his job to forestall the end as long as possible. The tech world is great; but it is also a graveyard for such things as the Betamax, Walkman, Digital Vax work stations, and Novel Netware. Soon to join the list is Sunsparc Stations, and Blackberries. Apple is living off its brand, which is a legacy of Steve Jobs. That brand has taken some hits in recent years, but still remains strong with the Apple groupies who are willing to pay huge mark-ups in order to experience the Apple Magic.
But, many people are not. Apple currently enjoys healthy profits and great cash flows. But, it hasn’t had a hit in 3 years. Apple devices only make up 20% of the smart phone market, and worst of all, younger people and hipsters are not flocking to Apple like they did in the past. In short, Cooke and Apple may need those Deniers if they wish to survive. Cooke one day may regret his angry impolitic words.
“Sasha says:
March 3, 2014 at 2:57 am”
I sort of agree the Apple model has run it course a unless they have another lucky break with some very on the ball innovation.
As to your examples – Kodak Versus Fuji comes to mind. Kodak just failed to expand its horizons, Fuji survived whilst Kodak went bust. Apple has a long way to sink, but so did Koak
Things happen fast in this world, no one can think they have it sorted
Stefan,
By no means. I don’t want to have stock in a company who’s CEO thinks it’s acceptable to trade ROI for political goals. Well, certainly not for political goals I don’t support! If I choose to risk my money, certainly I’d be sure the risks were for goals that match my goals.
“PS Re the claim that Macintosh computers embody style over substance, I have Macs from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s that still run. I don’t use them, because my 27″ quad-core i7 iMac is a lot faster and more Internet-capable. But Macs, even though they cost more, have always had a longer life-span and ROI than comparable PCs. And the idea that Mac users are all liberals is just nonsense. Just ask Rush.”
@lynn,
Still fighting those old Mac versus PC wars? They are soooooooo 1990s. Most businesses are steadily moving their desktops to virtual world of Cloud computing. The desktop is a commodity. Few businesses are willing to pay $2000 for a core 7 mac book when they can virtualize the desktop at a fraction of the cost. And since Apple is the only desktop OS that cannot be virtualized, they will lose out on a rapidly growing market.
@Mark Bofill
A fair point 🙂
Inquisitive reporters would take a look at who profits off Apple’s “sustainability involvement”. Might turn out that wasteful spending is filling crony pockets at the damage of investors.
I for one was pissed when the whole iMac gimmick brought the company back to life, I wanted Apple dead.
You can also blame some of this on the byzantine corporate tax code in the USA and various states where Apple does business. The code is full of incentives to do this and disincentives to do that. The purpose of the tax code should be to collect revenue for necessary government functions, not social engineering.
For those of you who take offense at Tim Cook’s remarks, you can buy some Apple stock, become an activist shareholder and fight to change Apple’s corporate policies. I personally believe the stock is overpriced in the long-term, so if you value social justice over profits, this strategy may be for you. On the other hand, if you successfully get Apple to stop wasting money by ending these policies, your Apple stock may pay off.
This greenwashing is what gets all those liberals in line to buy expensive apple products, which they then take to their 99% rallies 🙂
Frankly, I’m into apple products simply because the technology base is outstanding. The fact that they have money to burn doing this faux-greenwashing dance is sad, but not a deal breaker for me. It’ll become an issue when they’re low on cash, but for now, it’s equivalent to other CEOs spending money lavishly on parties, or yachts, or other trappings of wealth.
MrLynn says:
March 3, 2014 at 6:16 am
“”If his Board thought he was out of line, he’d be gone in a minute. In point of fact, it is an article of faith among the Left that corporations ought to be ‘socially responsible’, not just profit-makers. Apple currently makes pots of money, so they can afford to tow the Politically-Correct line, and even let their CEO become indignant at the suggestion he might deviate. In that culture, it’s good politics, maybe even good business”
If you want to sell products to the socialist part of the populace you better pretend your capitalist company is one big bleeding heart utopian commune. So you do some nonsensical stuff like buy a few windmills. Probably cheaper than one SuperBowl ad.
Full disclosure would mean the façade would come down and the green zombies would get really upset and stop paying way too much for electronics. I wonder what the hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers working in filthy Foxconn factories think about Apple’s “green” way of business.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but advertising qualifies for a tax deduction while many “green” energy investments qualify for a tax credit. A tax deduction reduces taxable income while a credit actually reduces taxes owed. Tax credits can actually result in paying no net taxes while receiving a check from the Treasury.
@JP
Apple has been dying every year since they were founded. And the jury is still out on how mobile and ubiquitous computing is going to pan out. Not that I’m a fan of iCloud or MobileMe. I think one of those Microsoft lawyers got it right when he said, the internet is too big to control. Now we’re all arguing whether a keyboard is necessary for “real” work, even as tablets make inroads into new areas. So who knows? WhatsApp went for billions because they targeted very dumb hardware. It is a big complex world, something I wish the “climatologists” would remember.
Hmmm. Is he sincere? It isn’t an especially a pragmatic mindset is it? If this is coming from the current Apple CEO, you have to ask what kind of decisions he is making. Stockholders beware!
Robert W Turner: “Full disclosure would mean the façade would come down and the green zombies would get really upset”
Kinda reminds one of facade surrounding AGW and refusal of several certain Manns who reject disclosure, let alone “Full disclosure”.
something so ignorant coming from someone supposedly so intelligent has to make you wonder if his intelligence is nothing more than good marketing ?
@Stefan
I’ve been in IT since 1997. The first desktops I worked on were Macs. It was one of the greatest experiences I had when I was a hardware tech. Apple in the late 1990s, while virtually bankrupt, still made outstanding hardware and designed great software for niche markets.
I for one never got into the nasty Apple vs MS wars. I went for what worked. Apple, while being innovative, also made some dumb mistakes (AppleTalk IP, non-backward compatible software updates, etc…). However, after Jobs buried the hatchet with Gates, his focus went way beyond the desktop market. He was a true visionary in that he both saw the future and he forced the future on the consumer.
However, from a strictly business point of view, Jobs never did much to hurt the Apple Brand. Jobs was too shrewd of a businessman to do so no matter what his politics were. And now, 3 years after his death, the current CEO made a critical error. It is not just hipsters and Apple Groupies that buy iPads and iPods. Not only did Cooke insult a segment of his customer base, worst still he took sides in a fight that had nothing to do with Apple’s core business. Apple isn’t going to win over anymore converts, and shedding even a small percentage over a political disagreement indicates that Cooke and the Apple Board may not have the shareholders best interest in mind.
krischel: “Frankly, I’m into apple products simply because the technology base is outstanding. The fact that they have money to burn doing this faux-greenwashing …”
Up until recently, I believed Apple made very good products. Arguably, I have a biased baseline, being I had MS Windows computers for decades. 😉
With Steve Jobs becoming ill and passing away; control of Apple has been turned over to some other players. Those players appear to have an attitude that is less about customers being satisfied, and more about Apple’s ego. (For example Apple’s IOS 7.) Apple’s CEO AGW/Greenie position further reinforces the emphasis on Apple’s ego.
Unlike Big Oil-enriched Al Gore, who sits on Apple’s board, I am unable (being a skeptic with no outside funding) to afford Apple stock.
They are observations, not rants; not that you have any basis for making such ‘claims’. Maybe it is Ed Shultz you are confusing with Rush?
.
This is becoming a huge story. Remember what happened when leftist media tried to assassinate Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson character over some political correctness crap? The powerful Christian/Libertarian/Conservative/Independent right and happen to be climate change skeptics smacked them down with a vengeance. Expect Apple to be revising their statement by the end of the day, showing respect to skeptics, because of the money involved.
Another article at top right column of Drudge Report;
Apple’s Tim Cook: Business isn’t Just about Making a Profit
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/apples-tim-cook-business-isnt-just-about-making-a-profit-9163931.html
Really, simply stated re: ROI, quite deluded (bordering on history re-write); I’m still making use of a Windows ’95 box to do daily recording on a timed schedule. The PSU fan gets a yearly lube, the power switch required change-out a couple years back, and I ‘move’ files off it in a Windows PC network neighborhood LAN environment … the 1990’s era 386DX 33 MHz Win 3.1 box used for Touchstone (linear network uWave and synthesis) sims and embedded development needs to be run yet this year (I think the CMOS battery ran down late last year). The TI 99/4A and Xerox 820 (Z80 based with floppy drive) ‘machines’ were long ago shipped off to recycle however …
And about apps, the serious engineering apps (board layout, modeling and analysis) were written for the IBM-PC ‘DNA’-cloned boxes and less so for the ‘artsy’-appealing and closed architecture of the Apple product …
There was, and ALWAYS has been a wider range of competing hardware for the open architecture of the IBM series of compatibles vs ‘the macs’ … this fact is either not known or was completely forgotten about (or, maybe no exposure to same?)
.
Apple is perfectly safe from ever seeing any of my skeptical money.
I came across a reader comment in The Independent that cites Hulme’s shocking admission that the “settled science” serves some extraneous purposes:
Jack Spratt
In the debate between the Alarmists and the Skeptics of Anthropogenic Global Warming it
can be difficult to sort through all the claims and counter claims.
In science 100% certainty is never available and what is true today can change tomorrow.
I think some people dislike this about science and want categorical, absolute truth.
But CAT is is a Holy Grail for children and the domain of mythology and religion where
truth is a window dressing for our desires, is plastic and easily manipulated by whim.
Time and data will slowly reveal more of the truth about this debate but in the meantime,
if you want to avoid standing in a cesspool of intellectual effluent, avoid aligning yourself
with liars, cheats, data manipulators, misanthropy, nihilism and some of the dumbest
most mediocre people on the planet masquerading as scientists, then join the skeptics.
One of the major centers pushing AGW with alarm is The Tyndell Centre
for Climate Studies at the University of East Anglia in England headed by Mike Hulme.
Mr. Hulme recently released a book, ‘Why We Disagree About Climate Change,’ which might
serve as an emblem of all that is wrong with the Alarmists and their tedious, tendentious arguments.
Hulme readily acknowledges that the science of the Alarmists is UNCERTAIN, but
he concludes that this DOESN’T MATTER given the importance of ‘possible’ impacts and the
uses to which the issue may be put.
Here are some revealing quotes from the book:
“The idea of climate change should be seen as an intellectual resource around which our collective and personal identities and projects can form and take shape. We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us.”
“Because the idea of climate change is so plastic, it can be deployed across many of our
human projects and can serve many of our psychological, ethical and spiritual needs.”
“We will continue to create and tell new stories about climate change and mobilize them in
support of our projects.”
“These myths transcend the scientific categories of ‘true’ and ‘false.'”
If this kind of intellectual gibberish is your cup of tea then you know where you belong. But if being forthright, honest and respecting people’s rights to their own Life and the Pursuit of Happiness has any hold on your psyche then you will vomit at associating yourself with such intellectual charlatans as the Mike Hulmes, Al Gores, Michael Manns, James Hansens and Rajendra K. Pachauris of the world. It would be a tragedy to have to agree with people who are so contemptible.
I would not buy an apple product but do own Apple stock. I like profiting from the leftist sheep who do buy their products. It is only business.
What an a$$hole. I hope many people will vote on his stupidity with their wallets. I certainly won’t buy another apple product until he is dead!:]
Mr. CEO, a true idiot ruling a kingdom of technologically handicapped lemings. I hope the country can firgure this out – Apple should have rightly closed it’s doors a few decades ago when no one was buying their products, all but for the little IPOD, they would have been gone. Truly an ludicrous company, in more ways then anyone can easily explain in a blog.
I never supported this company – never will, and this only strengthens my position (not that Apple hasn’t given me tons of reasons not to support them already).
Warren Buffett destroys argument that climate change is increasing extreme weather events (and is laughing all the way to the bank).
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/sean-long/warren-buffett-supposed-increase-extreme-weather-hasnt-been-true-so-far
Dang. I just bought the Apple 5s phone. If they don’t want my business then fine. I can buy a Google phone when my contract is up. Business and politicking don’t mix as Tim Cook is about to find out…
>>> “These myths transcend the scientific categories of ‘true’ and ‘false.’”
What pretentious pseudo intellectual crap. Pseuds corner material of the first order. You really couldn’t make it up. I guess this is what they now call “Post Modern Science”, but it has as much relation to the truth and the pursuit of knowledge as a snake oil salesmen. And we actually pay these people to produce this at taxpayers expense ?…
Thanks for posting those comments by ‘Jack Spratt’ and the really astounding quotes from Mike Hulme. E.g. “Because the idea of climate change is so plastic, it can be deployed across many of our human projects and can serve many of our psychological, ethical and spiritual needs.”
No science here, not even a hint of empiricism. It’s faith, not in the devotional sense, but as a dangerous tool of ideology and manipulation.
/Mr Lynn
FROM APPLE”S 1984 COMMERCIAL:
Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!
KINDA PROPHETIC ISN’T IT … Apple has become what they warned us against.
http://youtu.be/axSnW-ygU5g
1984 commercial
I don’t see anything in these articles where Mr. Cook uses the term “denier” This looks like another misleading title intended to get the WUWT faithful riled up.
REPLY: The headline from the first FORTUNE article quite clearly uses the term. If you have an issue with that article and/or headline, take it up with the author, Philip Elmer-DeWitt. – Anthony
Time to buy some apple stock, this guy has to go.
DANG!
I was ready to go with Apple after Microsoft was forcing people into Windows 8.
(Maybe I’ll see if someone has a used Commodore 64 for sale….8-)
In the smartphone market, Europeans are quite interested in Windows Phone. One in 10 smartphones in Europe is a Windows phone, one in 5 is an iPhone. In Italy there are almost 50% more Windows phone users than iPhone users. In the last year the iPhone has been losing market share worldwide except for Japan.
http://www.thewincentral.com/2014/02/24/kantar-worldpanel-windows-phone-at-10-in-eu-5-in-us-17-in-italy-ios-loses-everywhere/?relatedposts_exclude=250
Hey, give the poor guy a break.
He’s just dealing with his own version of “The Pause”.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL+Interactive#symbol=aapl;range=2y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=;
This is very distressing. I converted to Apple products some 15 years ago after 30 years in business using Windows (and not liking it).
Tim Cook needs to learn a little humility. Having a different view doesn’t make you a denier or any other ‘nasty thing’. Am I to assume he doesn’t want me to buy Apple products because I don’t share his rigid view of the world.
At present that makes 3 MacBook Pros, 2 Mac Pro’s, 2 3 Apple Tv’s, 3 iPhones and other assorted gear. Tell me like it is Tim, do you want me to piss off to? Well don’t worry I am so offended by your hubris that I have brought my ;last Apple product! Pity, because I was lining up to buy the new Mac Pro.
Way to go Tim. Probably 50% of adults don’t subscribe to the full AGW argument. They are your customers!
There are some things you can think in life, and some you can think and can’t say!
@Pete – That would mean you converted around 1999, and you had been using Windows since 1969? Windows has not been around 30 years to date. It was released in late 1985 (version 1.0 which was pathetic as was 2 and 3 – 3.11 finally started getting it solid).
Ooh, touché! Tim Cook hoist by Apple’s own petard. I wonder if he would understand it. Someone should send it to him.
/Mr Lynn
“The computer for the rest of us” becomes “The computer for the ideologically pure.”
Sigh. I always interpreted it as meaning “The computer for the command-line challenged.” And it certainly was, for me.
Well, I’m not giving up my Macs, no matter what Tim Cook says.
/Mr Lynn
I heard recently that HP was offering to ‘downgrade’ new Win8 computers back to Win7, because customers were rebelling against the now OS. I think Dell may be doing the same.
/Mr Lynn
@MrLynn – only the Pro version and then at a price. They also offered the same “downgrade” when VISTA came out – for the same reason. That is why the installed base of XP is still so large (I suggested to all my customers to downgrade from Vista to XP until 7 came out).
Of all the media that has covered this story so far, IMO, the only story that really “gets” what we were going for and why Tim Cook got angry is one by Tim Worstall today.
http://pando.com/2014/03/03/apples-tim-cook-and-his-dilemma-over-sustainability-and-climate-change/
Let’s go back to the 1990s when Apple, which was desperate for investment and direction, brought back Steve Jobs. Would Steve Jobs have dared make such an outrageous call like Tim Cook?
Cook’s comments are a fine example of absolute arrogance preached from the pulpit of the “Steve Jobs Success Story”.
Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs. Since Jobs passed over, how many genuinely new products has Apple released under Tim Cook?
Ummmm!!!! Errrrrr!!!! Ummmm!!! … Exactly!
The secret success of business is to never risk alienation from any potential or actual investors and customers. No business can afford doing so for any reason be it on religious, political, or other grounds. It is simply not good for business. Yet that is what Tim Cook has done.
But then, why would Cook’s comments surprise us? Just have a look at who is on Apple’s board of directors!
One bad apple spoils the bunch
This is crazy entitlement mentality… Apple is a public company owned by its shareholders.
Tim Cook has to follow the shareholders lead, not the other way around.
Stupid entitlement mentality of the left
Pete says (March 3, 2014 at 4:51 pm),
This is very distressing. I converted to Apple products some 15 years ago
after 30 years in business using Windows (and not liking it).
==========
You were using Windows in 1969?
That’s incredible.
Khwarizmi. His timeline is a little off. MS “Windows” copied the Apple’s actual windowing feature in the late 1980’s. Apple ripped the windows capability from Xerox, from whom they also ripped the mouse. They otherwise would have patented them.
@JP
Ah I agree, find the tech and solutions which work well. There’s been too much awful software (on any platform) I’ve had to use, and I appreciate it when the tools are well made.
As for Cook, the only direct quote I can find is, “If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.” I’m skeptical he said “denier”, but hey it is a fun-to-be-outraged thread; media is attention seeking, even on the great WUWT.
The notion of having “multiple bottom lines” is out there in some progressive business circles. I’m sure we’d all say there is something wrong with a business which “makes money” just by taking subsidies for alternative energy. Or with companies which are just patent trolls. We have a notion of “real wealth creation” and “fake wealth”. It isn’t just money and investors. That’s the machinery. But is your machinery helping raise the real standard of living, or sucking things into a black hole?
So “multiple bottom lines” is not so outrageous a notion. We all want better environment. The big problem with AGW is that it is just a narrative used to push through all sorts of sucky things.
The shareholders could decide to vote against Apple’s policies on sustainability and climate change, but clearly this was the action of a vocal minority and not the bulk of shareholders. Apple would be in very hot water if they did not pay a lot of attention to energy efficiency. It has many benefits besides CO2 reduction. For a device it means better battery life. For Apple services (such as the iTunes store server farms) it means less costs == higher profits. So its win-win, makes the user experience better, increases shareholder value by reducing costs. Oh, and by the way it plays well with the bulk of people, and government policymakers, who rightly or wrongly are concerned about environmental issues.
While I might be an lukewarmist and a sceptic of a good deal of climate science, as an Apple shareholder I am quite happy with what Tim Cook is doing, and I don’t think they should kowtow to this vocal minority any more than they should to Carl Icahn.
It’s been estimated that when you factor in all the energy costs of an iPhone (manufacture, running energy use, connected services like iCloud) it has the same footprint as a refrigerator. Unless Apple made considerable efforts to ameliorate this, it would become a massive problem longer term CO2 or no, as the energy has to come from somewhere to fire up all those billions of devices.
GEE, if a company refuses to serve minorities they get tarred and feathered but a CEO can tell skeptics to F—OFF?
I really do love the double standard of these people.
It’s hard to believe that Apple once had a ‘think different’ ad campaign.
===================================================================
That’s good to hear. My current PC is about 10 years old. I don’t have a cell phone let alone a “smart” phone. Why would I want an OS that considered a desktop an afterthought?
Interesting that Michael Crichton, author of the Jurassic Park series and responsible for one of the greatest Mac product placements of all time in Jurassic Park was skeptical of global warming claims on the basis of the shoddy science that supports it. Interestingly, Chrichton was biochemist before beaming a novelist. My PhD is in immunology, and my assessment of climate science is remarkably similar to Chrichton’s. Climate science seems to have been the victim of mass groupthink, in which all observations that do not fit the accepted narrative are simply ignored.
Steve,
I’m almost finished re-reading Michael Crichton’s State Of Fear again, for the 3rd time.
It’s amazing how prescient Crichton was. I especially like his analysis of the ‘political-legal-media’ complex — what he called the ‘PLM’, which controls the agenda that controls the average low information voter.
It’s a novel well worth reading, by the author of Jurassic Park. He nails the enviro lobby perfectly. It might as well have been written today [the copyright is 2004]. Not much at all has changed since then. Except, of course, that global warming has been stopped for many more years…
Huh? Mr Whatsyour name – this (proud) denier is selling off an iphone, ipad, ipod nano and macbook. Lets hope the rest of us Denier community treats your products with the contempt you appear to see fit to heap upon us! Back to Windows (sigh!)
Under the “business judgement rule,” it’s unlikely that Cook and the Apple BOD could be found in violation of their fiduciary duties. However, you guys are free to take them to court if you wish, and see where the chips fall.
Actually, the real test is – Will Rush Limbaugh, climate denier-in-chief, stop idolizing Apple and its products on his show, or will he continue to praise them and give away iPads and other items? If he demonizes them, sell…if he continues to say they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, hold and/or buy.
Apple comes out for corruption, junk science and crony capitalism: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/05/Apple-comes-out-for-corruption-junk-science-and-crony-capitalism
BBunsen, Rush Limbaugh weighed in yesterday, and his site has a transcript of his remarks.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/03/07/what_to_make_of_tim_cook_s_climate_comments