get serious

Let's see. Invest in training for workers to develop cutting edge production and supply chain technologies. Invest in transitioning suppliers to renewable and cleaner energy sources. Sounds like something the U.S. should be interested in but Apple's not in the Military/Oil/Coal/Pharma industries so U.S. Gov doesn't care.

Apple retail employees, including Part time, employees do get benefits. Pretty nice ones. Sick play, vacation pay, stock purchase plan, 401k, products discounts personal and family/friends. Also healthcare  and life insurance. Tuition  subsidies. And more. Pretty darn good for retail and best I’ve ever had in 30 years of working in the world. 
As for opportunities - they are there, but I think many employees over estimate how many opening there are. Many new employees have dreams of working in Cupertino.  With  100 to 300 employees per store and 500 stores there are more retail employees than in all of Cupertino. The road to corporate is riddled with unqualified people that full of themselves. 

kellie said:

Please define what wafer cycle time is.

From the web:

A simple way to look at cycle time is to apply a probability theory called Little’s Law in the fab. In this case, cycle time equals work-in-process (WIP) over the start rate, according to KLA-Tencor. For example, if a fab has 12,000 lots, and it processes 4,000 lots per month, the total cycle time is 3 months.

or

Cycle time is the amount of time it takes to process a wafer lot in a fab from start to finish. An advanced logic process could have from 600 to 1,000 steps or more.

Misdirection is part of the con.

Apple retail is not easy by any stretch. The product knowledge piece alone has ballooned in the past 15 years from 8 product and service lines to over 20 lines with another 20 sub categories. Then you need to know  a myriad of carrier plans, financing plans and trade options. That's the sales side. Technicians just had iPods and Macs not that long ago. In fact "relationship" repair was the primary task of the 'Genius' bar back when. 
I've been a part of every roll in the store in my tenure, save for management - been there done that, not worth it to me. That said I've seen Apple Retail grow from 100 stores to over 500 stores world wide. Head counts in stores  have quintupled. Training has varied from 3 days and you're on the floor, to two weeks and weeks of mentoring. Apple Store customer experience used to compete with Computer City, Best Buy and carrier stores, they still do. But now they compete with the expectations Apple created from past visits. A tough and ever higher bar customers reset every day.
I could go on but few are still reading this... Apple is a great way station for those young people to learn business and customer skills. As a lifetime career choice, not so much. Sure there are paths to other parts of Apple, but few realize there are more Apple retail employees than all of the rest of Apple. The stock options and benefits are wonderful. But after 5 years of the Genius Bar there are many companies that will take on that experience for more pay and less pressure. Just remember this as much as you think you won't miss the customers - you will. They are the greatest (except for those that aren't)

Not surprised. Apple Retail management receives no real training unless they got it at Best Buy or Gap. 

The other option for developers is taking on the risk of creating their own platform and ecosystem, nurture it for 40 years, build the goodwill and customer base, compete with other multi-billion dollar companies, while exhibiting technical, design and financial discipline to become successful.

MassiveAttack said:

I am asking myself what this whole pride symbol has to do with developers. 
It rather looks like a political statement since Trump has pushed all companies to remove the diversity program.

Wow someone is a little triggered. The colors are green through blue and represent the original Apple logo colors.
The Pride logo is Red through purple like a true rainbow.

Beats said:

It’s insane how much work Apple has to do to invent the first iPhone. Swiping, scrolling and pinch-to-zoom were insanely great innovations.

Only for Android to come along and copy all the hard work. Imagine how that felt?

Imagine how the inventor of the wheel has to feel.

Apple's 4th quarter ended on Sept 29th just over two weeks before the end of their financial quarter. I guess Canalys may use different quarters, probably like Loonies and Toonies same general shape just different.