dewme
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US will not tolerate EU fine against Apple, says White House
Tim Cook is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Apple has, since its inception, tried to coexist peacefully in the world market while still holding on to its core values that do not always align with the whims of any particular center of power.
Just look at how well Apple has been able to remain relevant to consumers in China, South Korea, Brazil, the EU, etc., even as the political situation in those countries did not always play in harmony with the political and/or social climate on either side of the relationships. Apple has always wanted to do what’s best for their customers and stakeholders. They certainly do not want to be exposed to the kind of turmoil they now face.My hope is that Apple can find a way to run their business without being influenced by political factors that they have little opportunity to control. Apple just wants to build great products, not be caught in the middle of a tug of war from all sides. If the EU doesn’t want Apple to continue to operate in a way they are comfortable with, Apple needs to figure it out, as they have done in China.Every time Apple gets singled out in the types of conversations that are now taking place, they suffer reputational harm. Apple has to maintain its relationships with consumers, competitors, and every other company that is being disadvantaged by the current turmoil.The last thing Apple wants is to receive special treatment that is not being afforded to other affected companies and industries. Just as a hypothetical, how happy would US farmers, automakers, consumer product companies, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications companies and advanced manufacturing industries feel if Apple gets “special” treatment because Tim Cook is perceived as being one of the president’s bros?
We’ve already witnessed what can happen when a company or person suffers reputational damage due to their relationship with the president. How happy are Tesla investors right now? We don’t want Apple suffering from a similar reaction if their reputation is brought under fire.
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Five years of Apple Silicon: How Apple continues to revolutionize chips
Apple Silicon is one of the best planned and best executed moves by Apple - ever. If you're going to talk about Tim Cook's legacy, Apple Silicon has to be one of the crown jewels of his accomplishments at Apple. Truly masterful.
Fortunately, Apple does not appear to be resting on its laurels with Apple Silicon. The competition is hot on Apple's heels and they have emerged from way way over the horizon to be within striking distance. As long as Apple continues to leverage not only the success of Apple Silicon, but everything else that makes Apple so unique, they will be in great shape. There can be no pause in the action. Intel paused and AMD caught them. Intel paused some more and Apple abandoned them. Now Intel is struggling to get back just to the wake of the slowest leaders.
I know there has been a lot of turmoil and disruption in the marketplace caused by politics, and Apple has stumbled a little bit with Apple Intelligence and Siri, but it seems from the outside looking in that Apple still has its foot firmly planted on the accelerator pedal when it comes to Apple Silicon. They have to. Apple can't wait for the dust to settle from the passing bullshitnado to figure out where their next opportunity will be. Apple Silicon needs to stay on the fast track.
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Trump confirms he reduced tariffs to help Tim Cook
Everything the current president is doing is purely for his own personal pleasure and to fulfill his deep personal yearnings for power, control, and forced allegiance. The basis of his relationships with all of these compliant corporate and political leaders, Tim Cook included, is FEAR.None of this is being done in service to the nation or to improve the quality of life and security of those who voted for him. Publicly announcing that Apple is getting a reprieve from tariffs because of his personal relationship with Tim Cook is a signal to other corporate leaders to comply with his demands and accept a subservient relationship. If he likes you, you’ll catch a break.I’m not pulling this out of the back channel, he has absolutely stated this “If I like you I may help you.” thing on many occasions. At least it’s transparent, so there’s no reason to pretend any more.
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iPhone & Mac tariff reprieve only temporary
I go along with the supplier diversification challenge, but that’s always been a problem with all forms of production, manufacturing, energy, raw materials, natural resources, mining, fishing, farming, … you name it. I can’t easily come up with a continent, region, country, city, town, or village outside of perhaps a few undiscovered tribes in the Amazon rainforest that are totally self sufficient. Trade has existed as long as humans have existed, even if it’s internal.discountopinion said:The tariff game sort of makes sense in its destructive chaos. I do not like it one bit, but there is some method in the madness.
Ensuring that chips, electronics and other increasingly strategic products have a geopolitically diverse footprint makes perfect sense. There is a huge concentration risk at present which does not help anyone other than China.
Short term we will stumble and make mistakes brining these processes back to the US and Europe. That is ok and normal for any large transition. But a change like this does not happen on the Trump time scale, but if Trump does not blowtorch the industry to move then it will likely never do so.
Love him or hate him - Elon Musk’s Tesla is the most geopolitically resilient company from a supply chain standpoint. Very few other companies are.
I want to see a future where high tech is manufactured and invented in hubs of awesome across the globe. We are in the very early stages of spinning up the robots economy and why on earth should a small island off the coast of China be a single point of failure and why should mainland China be a single point of failure for such a large quantity of goods when many other countries can do the same work to build planet wide resilience.The issue I have with the theory that cutting off or greatly restricting trade forcing a country like the United States to develop homegrown alternatives doesn’t make sense outside of wartime. Even then, the more expedient approach would be to find alternative friendly sources while sorting out what it takes to build out the homegrown solution, especially when you have the luxury of time.Maybe I’m overthinking it, but whenever I’m faced with knowing that one source of anything at all that is a necessity is going to no longer be available, whether imposed on me or by choice, I will plan ahead and make sure that I’m not going to starve to death or lose my shirt during the transition or disruption. I’ve found that planning is generally a very good idea, kind of like aiming before firing.Over course of my career I’ve changed jobs a few times, but I always made sure I had a new job before quitting the old job. Maybe it’s just me, but it always worked out very well. I’ve also changed career paths, but again I made sure I was prepared for the transition before I made the change.I know it sounds like old school business and management blah blah blah, but the saying “those who fail to plan - plan to fail” wasn’t pulled out of the air or a fortune cookie. It has sound logic behind it, especially when you’re talking about hundreds of millions of lives and multiple trillions of dollars.The US and Global Economy is not a reality show with fake scenarios, fabricated conflicts, and washed up D rated actors who can’t even get cat litter commercials. Real damage is being done to real people. Treating it like a reality show is beyond stupidity. Those who are playing these games have no concern about who loses everything while they skip away and roll around in mountains of money. Their futures are not at risk. Many of them will be dead in less time than it will take for the US to attain mediocre duplicates of what the current government is destroying.I often think that we truly are living in a reality show. The American people are simply unpaid extras, stage hands, or audience members.
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Trump gives Apple a giant break with wide-ranging tariff exemptions
Don’t worry about it, there are plenty more screws in our future.charlesn said:Oh, F*CK ME with this announcement! Trump promised me a great manufacturing job screwing in tiny screws on the iPhone and now he just pulls the rug out from under that dream?! Promises made and broken! Who the hell is gonna pay me back now for the expensive set of precision screwdrivers I bought?!
