I live in Oregon too and none of what you describe is how the ACA has affected me. And I'm self-employed. Since ACA has come along, this is the first time in about a decade where the monthly cost of my health insurance was flat or decreasing. Coincidence? I think not.
>>I can see why asshole companies want to have the option to screw over the customers...
This does happen from time to time, but its generally not good for the longevity of companies, therefore the ones still standing tend to avoid making such choices.
>>If Apples shortsighted deal with AT&T will not allow the iPhone to be sold legally in Europe, then that's entirely Apples loss and I'm also sure that the 5 year head start will make it easy for someone to come up with an iPhone killer.
First off, as a shareholder in aapl, I can assure you that the AT&T deal was not "shortsighted." By all accounts, Apple is going to receive around a 10% residual on the monthly service of its phone customers for 2 years. If that amounts to an average of $10/month, Apple just found a way to add $240 per iPhone sale (or, to put it another way, $1/share per year in earnings per 10M customers) to its bottom line for doing nothing except cutting this "shortsighted" deal. I wish all my investments could be this "dumb" ! Why shouldn't a company who has developed a product as innovative as iPhone not get some of the bounty, versus giving it to the fat morons in the various RBOCs/telcos/whatever you want to call them? Just because all the other phone manufacturers were too stupid to outthink the RBOC idiots doesn't make Apple "shortsighted"--it makes the other phone guys look like hardware-schleppers. At least Apple will use the proceeds to bring us new, cool stuff instead of more of the same old crap the carriers have given us for the past 10 years.
Furthermore, I highly doubt a company with the intelligence of Apple, and its denizens of attorneys, overlooked how it was going to deal with European regulations. Does anybody really believe that this company waited until now to figure out "uhhhhh, duuuuhhhhh, we am can't sell 'er in europe, Steve. Sorry, mate, errrr, better luck next time."? C'mon, grow up.
The only reason they have so many problems here is because of the new sophisticated voice mail they have invented. They were too far ahead of the time with that, so why not remove that feature and make the iPhone compatible with all providers?
Spoken like a true European who is happy to live with products that are actually moving backwards in time...give me a break--you are actually advocating removing features from a product (a feature which, by the way, kicks much ass) to comply with government regulations? Wow. I thought Apple fans were fanatical about the company and its products, but this is true fanaticism. Or should I say fascism?
Gee, let's see, you have the fastest growing brand on the planet supported by hundreds of retail stores around the planet and a cranking website to sell your products.
Yet, somehow, amazingly, you don't offer anything outside of your core products with your brand image on it. Not a single pen, shirt, sticker, keychain, pocket knife, poster, clock, golf ball, insert-your-item-here with an Apple logo to be found ANYWHERE. Oh yeah, except at the company store on Apple's campus, where this stuff flies off the shelf. Other skank guys like redlightrunner sell Apple branded stuff for HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS per item from their website because it simply can't be bought anywhere else. Apple has to actively ban these guys from buying too much of the stuff at any one trip to the company store in Cupertino because they will literally buy the store out of anything with an Apple logo on it and sell it for huge dollars.
How many dollars is Steve leaving on the table every year by not offering this brand on licensed products? Even if you want to overlook the capitalistic nature of the equation, which easily could have resulted in, say, $100-$200 MILLION DOLLARS IN PROFIT over the past ten years to shareholders, how about translating that figure into additional R&D which could have been applied to M$'s backside?
Is it the something in the Carrots? Could the BOD be this weak?
A new game concept:
You are a bright-eyed recent grad employed at a sausage-making company with a REAL shiny new logo. You write code for the sausage casing machines.
Every hour you are at your desk working decreases your energy bar. Also, every time a a) manager, b) hr rep, or c) senior exec corners you in a meeting, you also lose energy. Once in a meeting, you have to do everything in your power to avoid having "action items" added to your "to-do" list or you lose energy.
Every hour you are out of the factory, your energy bar charges. Dodging emails, performance reviews, hr reps, senior mgmt, "demos" etc and not getting fired gives extra bonus points.
The setting of the game is dim, flourescent lit hallwalls with cubes in a multi-story building. Its a first-person "shooter" with endless drone zombies wandering around in your way and muttering phrases like "bought-in", "synergistic", "shareholder value" and "target audience". If you can actually engage a zombie in a meaningless conversation which results in s/he saying something meaningful or leaving early scores you major recharging points. Otherwise, if a zombie gets too close, your energy level gets drained.
How do you "win"? That's the great part about this game that makes it so realistic--you can't! This way, people will keep playing endlessly until the next release comes out.
Slashdot Mirror
I live in Oregon too and none of what you describe is how the ACA has affected me. And I'm self-employed. Since ACA has come along, this is the first time in about a decade where the monthly cost of my health insurance was flat or decreasing. Coincidence? I think not.
>>I can see why asshole companies want to have the option to screw over the customers... This does happen from time to time, but its generally not good for the longevity of companies, therefore the ones still standing tend to avoid making such choices. >>If Apples shortsighted deal with AT&T will not allow the iPhone to be sold legally in Europe, then that's entirely Apples loss and I'm also sure that the 5 year head start will make it easy for someone to come up with an iPhone killer. First off, as a shareholder in aapl, I can assure you that the AT&T deal was not "shortsighted." By all accounts, Apple is going to receive around a 10% residual on the monthly service of its phone customers for 2 years. If that amounts to an average of $10/month, Apple just found a way to add $240 per iPhone sale (or, to put it another way, $1/share per year in earnings per 10M customers) to its bottom line for doing nothing except cutting this "shortsighted" deal. I wish all my investments could be this "dumb" ! Why shouldn't a company who has developed a product as innovative as iPhone not get some of the bounty, versus giving it to the fat morons in the various RBOCs/telcos/whatever you want to call them? Just because all the other phone manufacturers were too stupid to outthink the RBOC idiots doesn't make Apple "shortsighted"--it makes the other phone guys look like hardware-schleppers. At least Apple will use the proceeds to bring us new, cool stuff instead of more of the same old crap the carriers have given us for the past 10 years. Furthermore, I highly doubt a company with the intelligence of Apple, and its denizens of attorneys, overlooked how it was going to deal with European regulations. Does anybody really believe that this company waited until now to figure out "uhhhhh, duuuuhhhhh, we am can't sell 'er in europe, Steve. Sorry, mate, errrr, better luck next time."? C'mon, grow up.
The only reason they have so many problems here is because of the new sophisticated voice mail they have invented. They were too far ahead of the time with that, so why not remove that feature and make the iPhone compatible with all providers? Spoken like a true European who is happy to live with products that are actually moving backwards in time...give me a break--you are actually advocating removing features from a product (a feature which, by the way, kicks much ass) to comply with government regulations? Wow. I thought Apple fans were fanatical about the company and its products, but this is true fanaticism. Or should I say fascism?
Gee, let's see, you have the fastest growing brand on the planet supported by hundreds of retail stores around the planet and a cranking website to sell your products.
Yet, somehow, amazingly, you don't offer anything outside of your core products with your brand image on it. Not a single pen, shirt, sticker, keychain, pocket knife, poster, clock, golf ball, insert-your-item-here with an Apple logo to be found ANYWHERE. Oh yeah, except at the company store on Apple's campus, where this stuff flies off the shelf. Other skank guys like redlightrunner sell Apple branded stuff for HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS per item from their website because it simply can't be bought anywhere else. Apple has to actively ban these guys from buying too much of the stuff at any one trip to the company store in Cupertino because they will literally buy the store out of anything with an Apple logo on it and sell it for huge dollars.
How many dollars is Steve leaving on the table every year by not offering this brand on licensed products? Even if you want to overlook the capitalistic nature of the equation, which easily could have resulted in, say, $100-$200 MILLION DOLLARS IN PROFIT over the past ten years to shareholders, how about translating that figure into additional R&D which could have been applied to M$'s backside?
Is it the something in the Carrots? Could the BOD be this weak?
A new game concept:
You are a bright-eyed recent grad employed at a sausage-making company with a REAL shiny new logo. You write code for the sausage casing machines.
Every hour you are at your desk working decreases your energy bar. Also, every time a a) manager, b) hr rep, or c) senior exec corners you in a meeting, you also lose energy. Once in a meeting, you have to do everything in your power to avoid having "action items" added to your "to-do" list or you lose energy.
Every hour you are out of the factory, your energy bar charges. Dodging emails, performance reviews, hr reps, senior mgmt, "demos" etc and not getting fired gives extra bonus points.
The setting of the game is dim, flourescent lit hallwalls with cubes in a multi-story building. Its a first-person "shooter" with endless drone zombies wandering around in your way and muttering phrases like "bought-in", "synergistic", "shareholder value" and "target audience". If you can actually engage a zombie in a meaningless conversation which results in s/he saying something meaningful or leaving early scores you major recharging points. Otherwise, if a zombie gets too close, your energy level gets drained.
How do you "win"? That's the great part about this game that makes it so realistic--you can't! This way, people will keep playing endlessly until the next release comes out.