Jobs on Leopard; Orange to sell unlocked iPhones; retail firings
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs says he can almost feel Apple reaching an inflection point in personal computer market. Meanwhile, there are some rumblings about 'official' unlocked iPhones going on sale in France. And rumor has it that as many as 800 Apple retail employees were recently given the boot for cheating the company.
Jobs on the Mac's mainstream prospects
As Apple nears the release of the first significant upgrade to Mac OS X in two years, its chief executive believes the software could help the company pick up the pace of gains it has been making against primary rival Microsoft Corp. in the personal-computer business.
Leopard will arrive in stores as Mac sales are growing at more than twice the pace of the PC market in general, reports The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), helping the Cupertino-based firm make small, steady market-share gains against Microsoft in 10 of the 11 most recent quarters.
In an interview Tuesday, Jobs said he expects Leopard will help continue that trend, especially in the consumer market, where Apple puts most of its emphasis.
"The question is are we headed for a tipping point," said Jobs. "It sometimes feels like that."
Orange to sell unlocked iPhone
Apple's announcement Tuesday that it had signed France Telecom's wireless unit, Orange, to be its exclusive seller of the iPhone in France may have included a first-time clause that the carrier may also sell an unlocked version of the device that consumers can use on any network.
"The move, which ended a month of speculation, is a concession to a French law that forbids bundling the sale of a mobile phone and a mobile operator," the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reports. "Orange plans to sell both a version of the iPhone locked to its network in France for €399, or $560, and an unlocked version, which will cost more, an Orange spokeswoman [...] said."
According to the Orange spokeswoman, the cost of the unlocked version of the iPhone will be announced in November. For its part, however, Apple appears to be disputing that an official agreement has been made in this regard. Speaking to Gizmodo, a spokesperson for the iPhone maker said IHT was 'only citing French law, not Orange's intentions.'
Mass Apple Retail firings
Here's one that you may want to take with a grain of salt, but is interesting nonetheless. According to Ars's David Chartier, Apple may have recently fired as many as 800 of its retail store employees for taking advantage of the company's $100 iPhone credit program.
The backstory and rumor is essentially this: in June, all full-time Apple employees (including retail) were given free iPhones on the company's dime. Following the backlash from paying iPhone customers after September's unexpected $200 price cut on the handsets, Apple instated its $100 iPhone credit program which offered to reimburse early adopters with $100 Apple Store credits.
In order to receive this credit, all you needed was an active iPhone and AT&T contract. You simply typed your iPhone's phone number into a form on Apple.com. Apple then verified with its records that the phone number belonged to an active iPhone account and then sent a unique verification code via a text message to that iPhone. Once the text message was received and the unique code entered back into the form on Apple.com, a page containing a $100 credit number and barcode was made available for printing.
Well, it appears that Apple did not build a check -- or was unable to build a check -- into their $100 credit system to determine which iPhone accounts belonged to employees who were given a free phone and which did not.
So as Ars explains, some of those "lucky retail employees let their greed get the best of them" and were subsequently served with "pink iSlips" once Apple caught on to their little scam.
Jobs on the Mac's mainstream prospects
As Apple nears the release of the first significant upgrade to Mac OS X in two years, its chief executive believes the software could help the company pick up the pace of gains it has been making against primary rival Microsoft Corp. in the personal-computer business.
Leopard will arrive in stores as Mac sales are growing at more than twice the pace of the PC market in general, reports The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), helping the Cupertino-based firm make small, steady market-share gains against Microsoft in 10 of the 11 most recent quarters.
In an interview Tuesday, Jobs said he expects Leopard will help continue that trend, especially in the consumer market, where Apple puts most of its emphasis.
"The question is are we headed for a tipping point," said Jobs. "It sometimes feels like that."
Orange to sell unlocked iPhone
Apple's announcement Tuesday that it had signed France Telecom's wireless unit, Orange, to be its exclusive seller of the iPhone in France may have included a first-time clause that the carrier may also sell an unlocked version of the device that consumers can use on any network.
"The move, which ended a month of speculation, is a concession to a French law that forbids bundling the sale of a mobile phone and a mobile operator," the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reports. "Orange plans to sell both a version of the iPhone locked to its network in France for €399, or $560, and an unlocked version, which will cost more, an Orange spokeswoman [...] said."
According to the Orange spokeswoman, the cost of the unlocked version of the iPhone will be announced in November. For its part, however, Apple appears to be disputing that an official agreement has been made in this regard. Speaking to Gizmodo, a spokesperson for the iPhone maker said IHT was 'only citing French law, not Orange's intentions.'
Mass Apple Retail firings
Here's one that you may want to take with a grain of salt, but is interesting nonetheless. According to Ars's David Chartier, Apple may have recently fired as many as 800 of its retail store employees for taking advantage of the company's $100 iPhone credit program.
The backstory and rumor is essentially this: in June, all full-time Apple employees (including retail) were given free iPhones on the company's dime. Following the backlash from paying iPhone customers after September's unexpected $200 price cut on the handsets, Apple instated its $100 iPhone credit program which offered to reimburse early adopters with $100 Apple Store credits.
In order to receive this credit, all you needed was an active iPhone and AT&T contract. You simply typed your iPhone's phone number into a form on Apple.com. Apple then verified with its records that the phone number belonged to an active iPhone account and then sent a unique verification code via a text message to that iPhone. Once the text message was received and the unique code entered back into the form on Apple.com, a page containing a $100 credit number and barcode was made available for printing.
Well, it appears that Apple did not build a check -- or was unable to build a check -- into their $100 credit system to determine which iPhone accounts belonged to employees who were given a free phone and which did not.
So as Ars explains, some of those "lucky retail employees let their greed get the best of them" and were subsequently served with "pink iSlips" once Apple caught on to their little scam.
Comments
"The question is are we headed for a tipping point," said Jobs. "It sometimes feels like that."
Translation: We are about to announce an xMac!
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
Translation: We are about to announce an xMac!
"...especially in the consumer market, where Apple puts most of its emphasis."
...new Macbook?
So if you got an iphone as a gift, you aren't entitled to the refund? And fire 800 people because of it?
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
I agree, that's a bit ridiculous. Perhaps quietly asking the employees to give back the $100 would have been more apt, as they never explicitly said that they couldn't claim the refund. Then there's the double-edged sword...they knew the phone was a gift, but still claimed the money on it. Hmm...I still don't think firing the employees was a good idea.
So if you got an iphone as a gift, you aren't entitled to the refund? And fire 800 people because of it?
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
If it was a gift from the company and nobody outside of apple paid for it, of course not. You really think that employees who were given a FREE iPhone were entitled to $100 back on top of that? They were abusing the system, plain and simple, and they should have known better. I'm surprised there were that many who were that greedy/stupid.
I agree that an xMac would be a great addition to increase market share. The current hardware lineup has a serious limitation without such a model.
So if you got an iphone as a gift, you aren't entitled to the refund? And fire 800 people because of it?
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
The iPhones that were given to Apple employees were not "gifts." They were assigned to employees as tools of their profession. And, since no one (including the "giver" of the iPhones) paid the $599.00 original selling price, asking for a $100.00 "refund" is unethical.
I agree, that's a bit ridiculous. Perhaps quietly asking the employees to give back the $100 would have been more apt, as they never explicitly said that they couldn't claim the refund. Then there's the double-edged sword...they knew the phone was a gift, but still claimed the money on it. Hmm...I still don't think firing the employees was a good idea.
Yeah. It is hard to form a solid opinion without knowing what actually happened. We don't know what the employees were told (if anything) in relation to the $100 and we don't know if they were given a chance to "come clean" afterwards. Heck, we don't even know if anybody was really fired over this--it is still a rumor.
Possibly, Apple just used this as an excuse for axing some dead weight at the stores...
That said, I hope it was not a surprise massacre of some people who made one bad decision...
So if you got an iphone as a gift, you aren't entitled to the refund? And fire 800 people because of it?
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
The iPhone credit program was to reimburse people that bought an iPhone. I am not for the firing of the employees that took advantage of the company that gave them an iPhone for free, but I can understand the company's point of view.
So if you got an iphone as a gift, you aren't entitled to the refund? And fire 800 people because of it?
Seems full to the brim of BS to me. Unless there was a company memo that expressly said not to try for the refund.
Do you really think this surprising?
If I were an apple employee who had figured out this little loop-hole, it would have been really tempting to use it. However, it should be obvious to anyone that there was an easy way to track this down, and eventually you would have been discovered. Anyone with more than a pea for a brain could have run through that logic themselves. In the end, it only requires one other person to figure it out and mention it to management to receive their gold star for being a diligent employee.
I don't think that there is any way of justifying taking even a pen, let alone $100, from your employer when you have not been explicitly told you can do so.
I find this story quite believable. It might be false (perhaps this loophole doesn't exist, or perhaps the number fired was not 800), but the basic premise, that if you take advantage of your employer's trust to their detriment, you will be fired, is quite sound. I'd fire their asses.
Terms and Conditions for the $100 store credit for Early iPhone owners program
This credit is extended to end-customers who own a qualifying iPhone purchased from Apple or AT&T prior to August 22, 2007. To receive a credit, customers must submit requests between September 13, 2007, and November 30, 2007, at www.apple.com/iphone/storecredit. Requests will not be accepted after November 30, 2007. The program is for a $100 Apple electronic store credit in the form of a numeric code consisting of a credit number and PIN. This program is limited to one $100 Apple electronic store credit per eligible iPhone. Customers may apply this credit as provided in these terms and conditions. Customers should record the numeric codes that are presented electronically through the web browser. Apple will not replace lost or stolen codes. Only iPhones activated through AT&T are eligible to receive a credit.
Some iPhones will not qualify for a credit. They are: (1) iPhones purchased from Apple from August 22, 2007, through September 4, 2007, as they are subject to price protection (Separate terms and conditions apply. Details are available at www.apple.com/iphone/storecredit/priceprotection), (2) iPhones that have been returned to Apple or AT&T, (3) iPhones for which a Gift Card, rebate, or other consideration have already been issued, (4) iPhones that Apple provided to employees, either for personal use or for departmental use, (5) iPhones provided by Apple for product reviews, (6) AppleCare Service iPhones, (7) iPhones registered to customers whose addresses are outside the United States, (8) iPhones for which Apple or AT&T already has extended price protection under applicable sales terms, and (9) iPhones purchased by corporations or education institutions where Apple has provided alternative accommodation.
Seems plainly obvious to me.
I agree that an xMac would be a great addition to increase market share. The current hardware lineup has a serious limitation without such a model.
I doubt that Jobs was talking about any such thing. He is just pumping the up-coming release of Leopard.
"The question is are we headed for a tipping point," said Jobs. "It sometimes feels like that."
When they achieve double digit world wide marketshare (i.e. at least 10%) per quarter consecutively and incrementally for serveral quarters and years, then you can say they're at a tipping point.
Firefox has reached that point and when 3.0 comes out IE will just keep sliding in share.
... asking for a $100.00 "refund" is unethical.
Bingo!
Many such employees are trusted with a lot of access and information.
I do not think that any ethical person would think twice about firing an unethical employee.
Mass Apple Retail firings
Here's one that you may want to take with a grain of salt, but is interesting nonetheless. According to Ars's David Chartier, ............
focus.... focus....
I sent my resumé into Apple for a Mac Genius position YEARS ago and heard nothing. Then out of the blue I got a call 2 weeks ago from a placement agency that Apple uses. They told me that there were jobs opened up at the stores and I needed to tell them which store I lived closest to.
After going through all the "riggamaroos" I found out that the position was only part time, which I can't take, plus the closest store is 62 miles from my house.
Then this weekend I had to go to that store to get my MacBook battery fixed. When I went in, there were only 2 people out of the 8 working that I recognized from over the years it has been there.
Kind of funny that this story is breaking right now after the experience that I had.
But then again it's probably a whole mess 'o coincidence!
If an employee is given an iPhone from the company, there is no purchase and thus no credible claim for a refund. Any employee trying to claim the refund is just trying to be incredibly sneaky and sleazy in trying to get an extra buck or two. Not only is such a person ethically challenged and demonstrated they cannot be trusted, but also quite stupid to risk their job over a measly $100. Apple is better off without any such employees.
I agree, that's a bit ridiculous. Perhaps quietly asking the employees to give back the $100 would have been more apt, as they never explicitly said that they couldn't claim the refund. Then there's the double-edged sword...they knew the phone was a gift, but still claimed the money on it. Hmm...I still don't think firing the employees was a good idea.
You do not need employees like that. Anyone trying to skim 100 off the till should be fired. There are plenty of new guys willing to fill the spots. They can spend the time on the unemployment line reflecting back on ethics and being a stand up guy instead of the chump they currently are losing a job for a measly 100 dollars.
So while many retailers may unfairly reject someone for looking too unconventional, I think Apple may commit the opposite fault, and reject good people who look too conventional or conservative. I think the ideal would be to have a mixture...especially as Apple enlarges its appeal to more conventional type of people.