Apple blows the doors off (again) (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

No matter how you slice it, very good to the shareholders.... Apple is now "The Man" they once rebelled against..    (no negative implied there, just saying you are "The Man" with #s like this)

Funny you mentioned this. I was just talking to some friends about the quarterly earnings report and the marked change in advertising from Apple. They no longer make fun of Microsoft as the "big boy on the block", nor do they advertise themselves as a way to "think differently" because now they're as big as Microsoft and when you buy an Apple product you're not thinking differently anymore...you're thinking like most other people who own an iOS device!

 

[Steve_Tk]

It's crazy how many friends I have that have moved to iPhones. They don't even have to tell me, I just notice the text message goes blue.

 

[Sam Posten]

No matter how you slice it, very good to the shareholders.... Apple is now "The Man" they once rebelled against..    (no negative implied there, just saying you are "The Man" with #s like this)

www.yourethemannowdog.com =) Guess the articles I read weren't well researched, Gruber said it was #2 for sure. Hmmmm.

 

[Ken Chan]

The CNN article that Gruber quoted did say U.S. company: so second-best.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Ken Chan

The CNN article that Gruber quoted did say U.S. company: so second-best.

Yeah, that is true, second best for a US company. So, that is true.

 

[Sam Posten]

Ah, reading comprehension is not my friend

 

[mattCR]

Neh, it's fine. WSJ ran an article talking about best quarters for any public traded company, and most others talked about US enterprises.


One thing about success, like I said, you get to be "The Man" Which means today, we've seen more then a few sling & arrow articles aimed at Apple (fairly and unfairly)


http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/apples_insanely_profitable_made_in_china_quarter/

But what about the context? The earnings release came just two days after a terrific New York Times article, “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work,” made it abundantly clear that what’s good for Apple isn’t necessarily good for the American worker. And it came just hours before a State of the Union speech at which Steve Jobs’ wife, Laurene, was a guest in Michelle Obama’s box, and in which the president called for the “insourcing” of American manufacturing. In short, the most successful, profitable company in the world right now is pursuing a manufacturing strategy that is the direct opposite of what the president is advocating.

So, in the past two days, NYTimes, Salon, and the president have called on Apple to take their profits and start creating US jobs.. not a subtle shot across the bow. Meanwhile, Apple shatters profitability records in the middle of it.. so, I doubt they feel at all bad about the situation

 

[mattCR]

I said yesterday, when you become the Man, people come hunting.. Front page of MSNBC.Com this morning:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46143670/ns/business-us_business/#.TyF2a4EU6So

Apple accused of ignoring labor abuses that can kill
....

In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.


However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.

Prepare for a series of blistering news articles for the next while, on how Apple is now "The Man" and it's profits need to start moving to something else.

 

[dmiller68]

Well Apple uses other companies to manufacture their goods they do employee 49,400 employees most in the US. I find this talk pretty crazy because most high tech companies use manufacturing outside the US. There was an article just the other day about XBox workers walking out of the job because of working conditions (in China as well). The big problem with manufacturing stuff in the US is the cost. People here want big wages so it just costs to much. Even the president can't change the greedy attitude of the US worker. We are based on a capitalist world and if the US government feels a company makes to much money they just need to create a bunch of frivolous DOJ suits against them until their stock becomes stagnant.

 

[Sam Posten]

That NBC article is a retread of original reporting by the NYT this weekend: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all Bizarre that NYT has a relationship that lets MSNBC encapsulate them like that, they arent the same parent company are they?

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

That NBC article is a retread of original reporting by the NYT this weekend:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all
Bizarre that NYT has a relationship that lets MSNBC encapsulate them like that, they arent the same parent company are they?

No. But they have an agreement of sorts. In regards to the above, I'm not saying I value that approach, I'm just saying, when you're sitting on 90B+ in Cash Reserve, expect a whole lot of people to start slinging arrows your way. You get that Scrooge McDuck problem.

 

[Ken Chan]

Since Microsoft sold their interest a few years ago, the MSNBC cable network is entirely owned by NBCUniversal, which is 51/49 owned by Comcast/GE. The New York Times Company owns the NYT and several other newspapers, and not much else. The msnbc.com website had also split off as a separate company, and has remained 50/50 MS/NBCU. It provides news for, but should not be confused with, Microsoft's MSN. They have the partnership with the NYT (and Washington Post). I imagine they entered into that agreement to compete against true cross-media empires like News Corp (WSJ, NY Post, Fox).