If Apple paid their taxes...

shortchanged_2

mayonnaise wrote: »

Yes, a Dacia or Yugo will also take you from point A to B, but somehow people still buy Beemers, Mercs, Jags and Audis. Brainwashed, all of them!

And a car is ultimately a status symbol. You know mayo, a willy waggler.

The maximum speed limit in this country is 70mph. So what is the point of having a 200mph car exactly. Of course, its because 'I can afford one and you can't.'

kabayiri

Compare and contrast.

In the 80s when they were recruiting to build the original Apple Mac in the States, the recruitment process lasted 2 weeks and not just an interview in a couple of hours. The argument was that they wanted staff who bought into the product and it's philosophy.

Move forward to modern times. At the FoxConn plant they employed a team of counsellors and Buddhist monks in an attempt to convince the employees not to commit suicide. Suicide nets were also deployed to catch those pesky jumpers.

Apple was a dear product back then. It's a dear product now. It's just a change in how they pay those in the chain - glossy ads and mega launch events cost money you know! Those 6-day-a-week workers? They don't count so much.

marleyboy

I somehow imagine a major stalling in any attempted boycotts, unlike the Starbucks scenario, far too many of those warriors own a Mac and would not dream of sacrificing so close to home.

Graham_Devon

kabayiri wrote: »

Move forward to modern times. At the FoxConn plant they employed a team of counsellors and Buddhist monks in an attempt to convince the employees not to commit suicide. Suicide nets were also deployed to catch those pesky jumpers.

Yep. Absolutely tragic.



I note people are refering to BMWs, Audi's etc to make the comparison.

Theres a huge difference though. The photo above paints the picture. But for those still left confused, it's the fact that there aren't huge numbers of stories of the terrible working conditions for those putting thogether said cars. Neither do they make the same sort of profits. They also appear to pay their taxes.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

shortchanged wrote: »

apple is very clever in their marketing and have clearly brainwashed a lot of people into thinking their products are the must have things when clearly there are products out there that do just as good a job for a lot less money.

Yes there are many products out there that can do more or less the same thing as itunes, or icloud, or an iphone, or an ipad, or apple TV, or airport express, or a macbook, or an imac, for less money.

But nobody does it all, or makes it all work together, as easily/seamlessly as Apple.

What Apple does better than anyone is integrate all your devices for you so that they just work, and work well, and work reliably.

I have no doubt a samsung phone, and a lenovo notebook, and a Frugl tablet, and an Amazon account, and a generic desktop, and whatever else, can all be made to work together. But who's got the time and patience to figure out all those different systems, set-up, back-up, integration issues, etc?

Our IT department at work (a national PLC) has been fairly anti-apple for years, they have gone down the road of various other devices, pc laptops, android tablets, samsung phones, etc. And used several of the big well known systems designers and integrators at one point or another.

They've just announced the whole company is moving to Apple products.

As the integration is seamless, and the productivity, reliability and uptime for the test group over the last 6 months has been dramatically better than our existing solution.

kabayiri

Perhaps the way Apple is now reflects the values we hold in modern day society. 'Brand' appears to be everything, even though many of these branded things like T-shirts are made in the usual sweat shops out in the Far East.

I've just ordered a record player stylus from a UK company. Sure, it's expensive, but they have this woman who does nothing but sit there and make them by hand all day. She's extremely good at it, and by all accounts they value her skills.

This company must have it all wrong though. They don't go in for massive brand advertising; no showy ads on telly or in magazines. They will never make the billions Apple make.

(They probably don't have any suicidal employees either)

kabayiri

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

...

What Apple does better than anyone is integrate all your devices for you so that they just work, and work well, and work reliably.
...

They are pretty hot on the patent stakes too. There are always claims of patent infringement going on between Samsung - Apple - Microsoft etc. It's all gone a bit mad in the US.

They would patent the finger if they thought they could get away with it.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

kabayiri wrote: »

At the FoxConn plant they employed a team of counsellors and Buddhist monks in an attempt to convince the employees not to commit suicide.

And most Android tablets, generic PC components, and indeed smartphones from almost all manufacturers, are made in similar plants under often worse working conditions.

And I'd be prepared to bet most of those factories don't even bother with the nets and counsellors when their employees jump off a roof...

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

kabayiri wrote: »

They would patent the finger if they thought they could get away with it.

They all would.

Apple is no worse than any of the other big players in that or any other regard.

It just makes better products and more money, so is currently the victim of tall poppy syndrome.

shortchanged_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

They all would.

Apple is no worse than any of the other big players in that or any other regard.

It just makes better products and more money, so is currently the victim of tall poppy syndrome.

No, apple do not make better products.