China bans government agencies from purchasing Apple products - report

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 71
    lkrupp wrote: »
    Complete, utter nonsense and socialist utopian mindset.  If that were true then people should be flocking to American made goods, having a social conscience so that their fellow citizens can participate in the joys of a just economy (or other some such nonsensical pablum). Well guess what? They’re NOT. You put a shirt manufactured in the U.S. next to the same shirt made in Bangladesh (and five dollars cheaper) and the typical American consumer will buy the foreign made product every time. 

    You think WRONG!


    So you are saying that for the sake of greater profit it would be ok for the company that hires you to pay you nothing in return for the work you do. Remember I didn't say that they should pay 400 an hour to the staff working retail, just that having minimum wage workers selling equipment that goes by the thousands of dollars, at least I china, and moving on a single day goods worth several time more than what they sell with the public might not create a positive image of the company.
  • Reply 22 of 71
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fjose1929 View Post



    Cook can nip this in the bud by simply raising all retail store salaries to the same level as the U.S.. Afterall, cook claims to be the champion of fairness. This will ingratiate apple to the Chinese people.



    The Chinese government will be completely blindsided.



    Same should be done in Turkey and other countries that have a disparity in wages.

     

    Cook can nip the problem of the Chinese government being wary of security issues with the platform in the bud by... raising Apple employees' wages?  Maybe I misunderstand what you're getting at.

     

    As for disparity in wages, in countries where the cost of living is disparate it would be nonsensical to make wages arbitrarily uniform.  It is important not to only look at one aspect of a complex issue.

  • Reply 23 of 71

    I'm sure that some other platforms are more open to, say, location-tracking malware.  At least when Apple fumbles the location tracking a bit they are quickly held publicly accountable.

  • Reply 24 of 71
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    sog35 wrote: »
    according to this chinese site it says Bloomburg got it wrong.

    Apple is not banned.  They just need to file paper work

    http://companies.caixin.com/2014-08-06/100713823.html

    quote below from the article (translate using Google translate)


    Today, foreign media reported that the Chinese government procurement list, including the exclusion of iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air, including 10 models of Apple products. The report quoted an unnamed official as saying, for safety considerations, the Chinese government has 10 Apple products removed from the procurement list, saying the Chinese government does not intend to buy Apple iPhone6.

    "The reality is not so. July 28, the Ministry of Finance, Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the sixteenth issue of energy-saving products in government procurement notification list, Apple failed to enter the shopping list, but this is not the Chinese government banned the purchase of Apple, Apple may abandon themselves into energy-saving products in government procurement list. "aforementioned industry insiders said.
    Surprise surprise. Something not true gets reported and spreads like wildfire because everyone these days is obsessed with page views and clicks. I really wish more site would take the time to verify things before they report them.
  • Reply 25 of 71
    inklinginkling Posts: 772member
    Ah yes, another tiny bit of justice is slipping into politics. Apple tilted very heavily toward Obama in 2008, with Steve Jobs (according to Isaacson's biography) offering to help with the campaign.

    What's the result? Amazon managed to get the Obama administration DOJ to go after Apple and the major publishers. That's classic Chicago-machine politics. Color Apple's executives stupid on that. When you are dealing with Chicago politicians, you pay protection money/services or suffer the consequences.

    Unable or unwilling to aggressively take on terrorism with bold military action, the Obama administration turned to ever more intrusive surveillance. Now every world leader from Germany to China is ticked off at us. Did Obama really need to read transcripts of what Germany's chancellor was saying on her cell phone? Probably not, but doing it must have given him a thrill.

    Obama, the gamma-male among world political leaders, doesn't get many power thrills. Apple's executives are simply reaping what they sowed when they tilted toward the Democrats. No reason to feel sorry for them.
  • Reply 26 of 71

  • Reply 27 of 71
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Drunkzombie View Post





    So you are saying that for the sake of greater profit it would be ok for the company that hires you to pay you nothing in return for the work you do. Remember I didn't say that they should pay 400 an hour to the staff working retail, just that having minimum wage workers selling equipment that goes by the thousands of dollars, at least I china, and moving on a single day goods worth several time more than what they sell with the public might not create a positive image of the company.

     

    Apple doesn't pay their employees nothing.

     

    Apple does pay more than minimum wage to their retail staff.

     

    Referring to the value of goods sold as a factor in compensating sales employees has a name: commission sales.  The value of goods sold by salespeople paid an hourly rate is immaterial; if a worker feels that their employer is underpaying them they can find an employer that pays better (it happens every day).

     

    I think Apple has a pretty positive public image, for the most part.

  • Reply 28 of 71
    colibri wrote: »
    Protectionism - clear and simple.  They are giving Chinese knockoff brands like Xiaomi space to grow locally.

    This! Any non-Chinese company looking towards China to grow is playing a fool's game. You have to be wilfully ignorant to ignore the ridiculous amount of protectionism and mercantilism the Chinese have been engaged in for over a decade.
  • Reply 29 of 71
    inkling wrote: »
    Ah yes, another tiny bit of justice is slipping into politics. Apple tilted very heavily toward Obama in 2008, with Steve Jobs (according to Isaacson's biography) offering to help with the campaign.

    What's the result? Amazon managed to get the Obama administration DOJ to go after Apple and the major publishers. That's classic Chicago-machine politics. Color Apple's executives stupid on that. When you are dealing with Chicago politicians, you pay protection money/services or suffer the consequences.

    Unable or unwilling to aggressively take on terrorism with bold military action, the Obama administration turned to ever more intrusive surveillance. Now every world leader from Germany to China is ticked off at us. Did Obama really need to read transcripts of what Germany's chancellor was saying on her cell phone? Probably not, but doing it must have given him a thrill.

    Obama, the gamma-male among world political leaders, doesn't get many power thrills. Apple's executives are simply reaping what they sowed when they tilted toward the Democrats. No reason to feel sorry for them.

    Dam you, Obama!

    (The right wing nutjobs' arguments are not even internally consistent. Obama retaliated against Apple because Apple was very pro-Obama. What?)

    Also, you are aware that the NSA PRISM program began in 2007, right? I am guessing you think Obama used his birth certificate forgng time machine to go start the PRISM program before he was elected president.
  • Reply 30 of 71
    danielswdanielsw Posts: 906member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fjose1929 View Post



    Cook can nip this in the bud by simply raising all retail store salaries to the same level as the U.S.. Afterall, cook claims to be the champion of fairness. This will ingratiate apple to the Chinese people.



    The Chinese government will be completely blindsided.



    Same should be done in Turkey and other countries that have a disparity in wages.



    Incredibly stupid.

  • Reply 31 of 71
    conrailconrail Posts: 489member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wings View Post



    Well, why didn't they also ban iPhones? They run the same software as iPads.

    Because Chinese big-shots want fancy phones just as much as we do :)

  • Reply 32 of 71
    onhkaonhka Posts: 1,025member

    This article is FUD!

     

    Equally important, most of the comments posted here are equally FUD.

     

    Best the FUD'rs delete their comments. Otherwise you really look like the a-hole who originally blogged the article.

     

    http://companies.caixin.com/2014-08-06/100713823.html

     

    https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://companies.caixin.com/2014-08-06/100713823.html

  • Reply 33 of 71
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fjose1929 View Post



    Cook can nip this in the bud by simply raising all retail store salaries to the same level as the U.S.. Afterall, cook claims to be the champion of fairness. This will ingratiate apple to the Chinese people.



    The Chinese government will be completely blindsided.



    Same should be done in Turkey and other countries that have a disparity in wages.

     

    1.  According to another posting above, this report was bogus anyway and Apple's products are not banned from government purchases.

     

    2.  Your idea wouldn't work anyway.

     

    3.  It's not necessary (or even desirable) to raise wages to U.S. levels because that wouldn't be the equivalent wage anyway since the cost of living is different.   If you wanted to equalize wages, the way to do it would be to create a "basket" of commonly bought items and equalize wages based upon the number of hours at any given wage rate it takes to acquire them.     For example, if a typical grocery buy is $100 in the U.S. and workers are paid $20 an hour that's five hours.    If an equivalent basket costs $25 in China, you'd pay the workers $5 an hour.

     

    However, even that may be too much because if a major employer substantially raises wages, that can cause inflation. 

     

    4.  If the report was accurate, it's yet another reason why Apple should not be doing virtually all manufacturing in  China.  I've always felt that the most ethical way to manufacture is close to each of the markets that you're in so that the countries with consumers who buy your products also benefit from the jobs.    However, critics say that wouldn't work because the parts manufacturers are in China and you have to be near them.   But the Chinese Government has too much arbitrary power and it places too much of the business at risk.  

  • Reply 34 of 71
    john12345john12345 Posts: 152member
    US should ban Lenovo from government purchases.
  • Reply 35 of 71
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post

     

    And you all think the US government does not have a similar Ban on certain product made outside the US. Hell the President is not allow use anything but a blackberry. 


     

    BlackBerry is Canadian.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post

     

    Apple is being made a political pawn in the chess game between China and the U.S. This all started when the U.S. banned sales of Chinese networking products, just like Microsoft and other U.S. tech companies.


     

    Huawei and ZTE have not been banned by the US; it was recommended by a Congressional committee, but not implemented.

  • Reply 36 of 71
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Onhka View Post

     

    This article is FUD!

     

    Equally important, most of the comments posted here are equally FUD.

     

    Best the FUD'rs delete their comments. Otherwise you really look like the a-hole who originally blogged the article.

     

    http://companies.caixin.com/2014-08-06/100713823.html

     

    https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://companies.caixin.com/2014-08-06/100713823.html


     

    So we shouldn't blindly trust Bloomberg, but we should blindly trust a Chinese media outlet? Right.

  • Reply 37 of 71
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    bobjohnson wrote: »
    So we shouldn't blindly trust Bloomberg, but we should blindly trust a Chinese media outlet? Right.

    Over Bloomberg on Apple, right.
  • Reply 38 of 71
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kerryb View Post



    I could care less.

    Misused idioms aside...

     

    China have some great hackers, crackers and security experts, they would know if and what data was being sent back.

    The big difference is that we KNOW that some Chinese stuff sends your data back to Chinese servers.

  • Reply 39 of 71
    Old school trade protectionism.
  • Reply 40 of 71

    I wouldn't be surprised if this report is incorrect (or jumping the gun, as pointed out above).

     

    That said, if some variant of this turns out to be true, then let's recognize this is what the NSA and related government idiots have brought upon on the brightest light of the US economy, namely IT/networking/computers/mobile.

     

    It's a damn shame that we're throwing all these billions of dollars at snooping on our own people, foreign leaders and companies. In the meantime, a handful of 20-something Russian hackers may have got away with 1.2B (yes, billion) usernames and passwords. Why not spend the resources going after thugs like those, and making the internet safer for everyone?

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