Posts tagged Apple
You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are - E. Albee
![Update: … who rules the world? [ Apple value tops $600 billion ] $1,111 per share and $1 Trillion market cap in a year? And what do you know: they pay only 9.8% tax too.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2f5r6y99g1qh6iluo1_400.jpg)
Update: … who rules the world? [ Apple value tops $600 billion ] $1,111 per share and $1 Trillion market cap in a year? And what do you know: they pay only 9.8% tax too.
Always knew Apple products were overpriced but this is ridiculous …
TV: Apple cash mountain vs the rest
What will Apple do with its cash mountain? Whenever I ask myself who is more likely to make a success of the next generation television, I imagine which brand would do better if competing for some of the big global content rights packages, like English football or Formula 1. Facebook may have the connected user numbers to make a global TV play credible, but it is the maker of the iPhone and iPad which has the readies for the job. The creator of the iPhone may soon have more ready cash than the US government and analysts are speculating about acquisitions. But the firm may be more focused on a daring foray into pay television [ The Guardian ]
US jobs? Don't ask Apple ...
“Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google … This means “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. [ nyt ]
Apple: Whichever way you look at it …
Apple’s real-life growing pains are so much less serene and pleasing to the eye than its much vaunted (nae monastically curated) designs; and much more like an unremarkable, down-and-dirty omelette than the classy souffle their brand would demand.
This week, Apple in China manifested strains on both sides of the business model: retail and manufacturing. Here above, shoppers in Sunlitun join the humiliating crush for a chance to be first to own an iPhone 4S. Apple’s strategy of fanning Chinese consumers’ desire for its products seemed to backfire last week as over-crowding at its flagship store in Beijing prompted police action.
A Chinese tweet at the time read: “The poor in China build iPhones for the rich of the world. In China they queue to buy them for the rich in their own country.” And in fact, the disturbances might have been the result of pressure from those in the 3000 strong crowd who were there earning a living, paid to queue by those wealthy enough to avoid the nuisance.
The consumer frenzy comes just days after the problems at the factory where the phones are manufactured. Workers at the Foxconn plant in Wuhan, threatened to throw themselves off the roof of the factory in protest at work conditions there.
It intrigues me how corporations successfully exploit excellent user experience to build and protect their brands, masking the otherwise conventionally brutish way they conduct much of their business. I wonder how much longer Apple, without the halo of their canonised former leader to protect them, will be able to sustain this so effectively. I guess, until the last dollar is eked out of the Steve Jobs myth … and they do still have a film coming, don’t they? [ FT, China Files, Independent ]
* From suicide threats to a trade union? [ The Guardian ]
… meanwhile, back at the New York Times … [ nyt ]
Update: Steve Jobs action figure scrapped [ Newser ]
Think Different? Steve "didn't like it"
“He was far from the mastermind behind the renowned launch spot. In fact, he was blatantly harsh on the commercial that would eventually play a pivotal role in helping Apple achieve one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in business history.” Rob Siltanen, chairman and chief creative officer at Siltanen & Partners was the creative director and managing partner at TBWA/Chiat/Day who worked on the Apple pitch alongside CEO and Chief Creative Officer Lee Clow. And his memory of how things went down when they pitched the “Think Different” campaign to Steve Jobs is somewhat different from the version written by Walter Isaacson and signed off by the great one. [ Forbes ]
