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Apple Pulls 25,000 Apps From China Amid a Barrage of State-Media Criticism (wsj.com)
Apple has pulled more than 25,000 illegal apps from its App Store in China after coming under fire from state media for not doing enough to filter out banned material. From a report: "Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China," Apple said in a statement Monday. "We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store." The removals were reported earlier by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday, which said 25,000 apps were pulled. Apple didn't confirm that number. It offers more than 1.8 million apps in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Removing 25,000 apps would amount to about 1.4% of that total.
So Apple is supposed to ban "prohibited content including pornography, gambling and counterfeit goods." That sounds ok, but I wonder what the other prohibited content is. Does it include private free speech, without the Chinese government able to listen in?
The same WSJ article says,
Apple depends on China for about one-fifth of its revenue. When sales in the market fell 26% in the three months ended in March 2016, Apple’s stock tumbled to a low of $90.34 within months.
I wonder if Xi is trying to scare Tim Cook, hoping Cook will pressure the US government into backing down on tariffs against China.
If they ignored doing business with any country that has human rights violations then I can't think of a single country on earth they could do business in, maybe some of the smaller Scandinavian countries. Certainly US/Russia/UK/AUS/All Asian and middle eastern countries, all communist and dictator driven countries etc would be out and most European countries too. really companies should stay the fuck out of politics, obey the local laws, if you object refuse to do business there, end of story.
Still very much alive, but in an increasingly saturated market with no original ideas. Their biggest problem is that they tried to appear as the "fashionable" hardware brand. Things eventually go out of fashion. People already have all the tech hardware that they want. That's why companies like MS, Google and Amazon have moved into cloud. Apple is being left behind.
Their primary concern is increasing profits, which happens by increasing the revenue (getting as close to a monopolist as possible) and lowering the costs (a.k.a. optimizing the workforce and lowering the tax burden).
In established oligarchies, where "the law" is drafted between lobbyists and legislators over expensive lunches paid by the former, Apple is in compliance because they write the laws.
In places like China, where the ruling elite is more aligned to an ideology, they listen and obey.
The job of Apple isn't to ask for more "democracy" in China. That's the job of the US government.
If they ignored doing business with any country that has human rights violations then I can't think of a single country on earth they could do business in, maybe some of the smaller Scandinavian countries. Certainly US/Russia/UK/AUS/All Asian and middle eastern countries, all communist and dictator driven countries etc would be out and most European countries too. really companies should stay the fuck out of politics, obey the local laws, if you object refuse to do business there, end of story.
Perfectly stated!
Still very much alive, but in an increasingly saturated market with no original ideas. Their biggest problem is that they tried to appear as the "fashionable" hardware brand. Things eventually go out of fashion. People already have all the tech hardware that they want. That's why companies like MS, Google and Amazon have moved into cloud. Apple is being left behind.
Big difference!
MS, Google and Amazon are almost exclusively software-based companies.
Apple cannot move a Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch or Apple TV "into the cloud". They are HARDWARE. And the manufacture and sale of that HARDWARE happens to be Apple's main business model.