Briefly: Apple lobbies government, Fifth Ave. store sales booming
Apple spent $390,000 lobbying the U.S. government on stimulus and education funding in this year's second quarter; while a new report says the company's Fifth Avenue store rakes in $350 million annually.
Apple lobbies on education funding, broadband
New lobbying disclosures from the U.S. House of Representatives show that Apple spent $390,000 in Q2 2009 on attempts to influence leaders. Issues included tax codes, education funding, stimulus grants and broadband penetration.
That Apple is pushing for more education funding is no surprise. The company's COO, Tim Cook, revealed in a company earnings report in July that education sales have lagged as the recession has impacted school funding.
"The U.S. K-12 institutional business is weak," Cook said. "As you might expect, and it’s getting hit by budget shortfalls, and last quarter we saw very negligible amount, if any, of the stimulus funds flow all the way to the state and district levels to get spent. So that may or may not occur this quarter."
The new lobbying reports show that Apple weighed in with officials on stimulus grants and education funding, as well as broadband availability in the U.S., health care reform, consumer safety, retail crime, foreign and domestic trade, green technology and more.
In the first quarter of 2009, Apple spent $340,000 total on lobbying.
Fifth Avenue Apple store is highest grossing
A new report from Bloomberg states that Apple's store at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan is the most profitable store in the district. Calling it "a mercedes per square foot," the report estimates that the Apple Store has annual sales of more than $350 million.
The success of the store is pinned on the popularity of the iPhone, noting that lines often run out of the store's front door of shoppers looking to buy the device. This as retail sales in New York City have reportedly fallen 8 to 10 percent from a year prior.
Located at 767 Fifth Ave., the 20,000 square foot store first opened in 2006. It features a distinctive 32-foot glass cube and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Apple lobbies on education funding, broadband
New lobbying disclosures from the U.S. House of Representatives show that Apple spent $390,000 in Q2 2009 on attempts to influence leaders. Issues included tax codes, education funding, stimulus grants and broadband penetration.
That Apple is pushing for more education funding is no surprise. The company's COO, Tim Cook, revealed in a company earnings report in July that education sales have lagged as the recession has impacted school funding.
"The U.S. K-12 institutional business is weak," Cook said. "As you might expect, and it’s getting hit by budget shortfalls, and last quarter we saw very negligible amount, if any, of the stimulus funds flow all the way to the state and district levels to get spent. So that may or may not occur this quarter."
The new lobbying reports show that Apple weighed in with officials on stimulus grants and education funding, as well as broadband availability in the U.S., health care reform, consumer safety, retail crime, foreign and domestic trade, green technology and more.
In the first quarter of 2009, Apple spent $340,000 total on lobbying.
Fifth Avenue Apple store is highest grossing
A new report from Bloomberg states that Apple's store at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan is the most profitable store in the district. Calling it "a mercedes per square foot," the report estimates that the Apple Store has annual sales of more than $350 million.
The success of the store is pinned on the popularity of the iPhone, noting that lines often run out of the store's front door of shoppers looking to buy the device. This as retail sales in New York City have reportedly fallen 8 to 10 percent from a year prior.
Located at 767 Fifth Ave., the 20,000 square foot store first opened in 2006. It features a distinctive 32-foot glass cube and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Comments
How much do you think the MS stores will make?
THIS is how you make money in this industry. Never mind going after he bottom end with lousy products . . . thta you can't even sell enough of in a recession!
$1 million a day for one store.... drools
How much do you think the MS stores will make?
i'm sure just the very idiotic idea of the store has cost microsoft -350 millions
keep up the good work, ballmer
The company's COO, Tim Cook, revealed in a company earnings report in July that education sales have lagged as the recession has impacted school funding.
"The U.S. K-12 institutional business is weak," Cook said. "As you might expect, and it?s getting hit by budget shortfalls, ......
Yeah, Tim, instead of asking for government handouts (which is, after all, our $$!), how about giving the schools and back-to-school parents a REALLY major one-time price break (instead of just an iPod Touch)?
Yeah, Tim, instead of asking for government handouts (which is, after all, our $$!), how about giving the schools and back-to-school parents a REALLY major one-time price break (instead of just an iPod Touch)?
Well I'd certainly rather have them use my tax money for Macs than use it for old vehicles that run fine but get a few MPG less than current ones and then run salt water through the engine to kill it and then put it in a landfill.
Well I'd certainly rather have them use my tax money for Macs than use it for old vehicles that run fine but get a few MPG less than current ones and then run salt water through the engine to kill it and then put it in a landfill.
I'd rather have neither!
I'd rather have neither!
Well yeah, I'll go w/ ya on that one.
I wonder what we could do w/ all that money spent on lobbying - in 2008 over 3.3 BILLION was spent to lobbying - I'd imagine the states could find good things to do w/ $66 million a piece...
Yeah, Tim, instead of asking for government handouts (which is, after all, our $$!), how about giving the schools and back-to-school parents a REALLY major one-time price break (instead of just an iPod Touch)?
Ah... time for the "I did it all myself" Randians to raise their heads again.
How you doing on that public education YOU got (or is this another 'I got mine' event?)
Or the roads, police, courts (that protect your intellectual property), inspected water/food/drugs, basic research (that the entire tech industry is built on), etc etc etc.
Reaganism was a failure... get over it.
Yeah, Tim, instead of asking for government handouts (which is, after all, our $$!), how about giving the schools and back-to-school parents a REALLY major one-time price break (instead of just an iPod Touch)?
Huh? That's a peculiar way to interpret that. Apple lobbies on behalf of the Mostly public education system recieving funding which in turn may benifit them, but it's not like Apple directly being granted funds by the federal government.
I wonder what the rent is on that 5th ave location? $4000/sf?
Ah... time for the "I did it all myself" Randians to raise their heads again.
How you doing on that public education YOU got (or is this another 'I got mine' event?)
Or the roads, police, courts (that protect your intellectual property), inspected water/food/drugs, basic research (that the entire tech industry is built on), etc etc etc.
Reaganism was a failure... get over it.
Excuse me?!
1) Please learn about what a 'public good' is. You'll see that your examples above are (mostly) referring to public goods. A Mac is not. (And if you really cared about public education budgets vis-a-vis Mac purchases, why would you not ask for Apple to lower prices!?).
2) What does this have to do with Reaganism?* And, how the heck do you know what my politics are? You have absolutely no clue, so please spare me the political swipes.....
*I see someone's been reading Krugman today.
Huh? That's a peculiar way to interpret that. Apple lobbies on behalf of the Mostly public education system recieving funding which in turn may benifit them, but it's not like Apple directly being granted funds by the federal government.
Ah, you think that Apple is lobbying the government for more funding for public education so they can hire more teachers or buy PCs or provide better gym facilities?
I made a very simple point: If Apple truly: (i) cares about public education budgets; (ii) cares about kids who attend public schools (and their parents); and (iii) wants to sell more computers, it knows what to do.
basic research (that the entire tech industry is built on), etc etc etc.
Reaganism was a failure... get over it.
Ummm, no. As someone who is very much aware of what is really going in in "basic research", I can say with no hesitation whatsoever that you are very, very misled on this topic.
Basic research in the US is healthier than it has ever been. The same is true for the world as a whole. And "ever been" as in "the recorded history of mankind, and almost certainly prior to that as well". There is more money, more projects, more people, more industry help, more tools, faster turnaround, faster distribution, faster to-the-market than ever before. Anyone can see this.
And that's because of changes that were made in terms of government funding. In the past, companies were in the uncomfortable position of having to compete with the US government for funding on many basic research priorities. The government had effectively unlimited funds, but spread thinly. That meant there was little chance that they would pick your area of interest to fund, but if they did, you were wiped out. So the risk was too high to develop many products, and the companies instead waited for government projects that would guarantee them the income before starting any work. Worse, you had groups like RAND and SRI who were favored vendors for just about everything - the devil you know.
But worse than that, the government also claimed ownership on anything that came out of a project that they funded. So when the project to build early IC's for the Nike X project ended because they didn't want the missile, they owned some of the IP and IC's didn't come to market for the better part of a decade. Private capital was essentially locked out, they could invest if they wanted to, but there was no way to recoup that if the government came in at any point.
The change that, well, changed everything, was the turnover of IP to the research body, in spite of the government funding. This had two effects. For one, it gave universities and other research labs a clear profit motive for their work. The second, a side-effect, was that the same groups were also in a position to gather funding from non-government sources. This freed up trillions of dollars for research that was otherwise locked away because of the ownership issues.
An excellent example of the rapid changes this brought about can be seen here in Toronto. In the early 1990s the Canadian government instituted a number of changes that matched the US's. This was during a period of decreasing investment in Canada, a topic of hot debate that can still be widely found on the Internet. Then the money started flowing, but it was difficult to match funding with partners. So they created the Discovery District, for about $500 million in taxpayer funding. The result? Toronto is now the #1 area in several different health management areas, and by 2002 it was estimated the District was generating $2 billion a year in direct economic benefit. Since then the MaRS incubator and university labs across the road have tripled in size.
If there is an example where the private world is clearly better than the government, I can't think of it.
Maury
$390K in lobbying? That's peanuts! That's 1/3 of one day of revenue at the Manhattan Apple Store also mentioned in the article. That's a few full-time folks. I don't even know why that's news.
You beat me to it... $390k what does that get you in a government dripping with corrupiont? A cup of coffee with a Congressman's low level stooge?
Dave
Yeah, Tim, instead of asking for government handouts (which is, after all, our $$!), how about giving the schools and back-to-school parents a REALLY major one-time price break (instead of just an iPod Touch)?
Lobbying is a legal activity. Companies and special interest groups all do it. How else do you think their interests could be represented in Washington?