randominternetperson

The image of the tweet doesn't make any sense unless you click thru and see that the dude is referring to the top of the image.  (Not sure how this is "punishment," but that's a different issue.)

The headline of this article is 100% false. "New report contradicts Tim Cook's remarks about iPhone panic buying."

From the article: "More iPhone owners than usual traded in their older devices in the spring of 2025" and "Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook telling investors he hasn't seen signs of tariff-related buying behavior."

The "new report" just confirms the first point and as this article says "CIRP suggests the shift may reflect tariff anxiety, though the firm didn't survey customers or directly confirm buyer motivations. It's a plausible theory, but without more detail, it's just that."

So an accurate headline would be along the lines of "new report speculates that tariff effect could be greater than Apple's assessment." (yawn) or "New report confirms surge in owners upgrading older phones."

There is literally nothing in the report that "contradicts" anything Tim Cook said.

(To be clear, I have no complaint about the informative article. Just the headline. As is often the case.)

nubus said:

hammeroftruth said:

One of the things that has always bothered me is that there isn’t any news about other companies like Nintendo, or Sony having proprietary hardware and not running afoul of the EU. Is that because they grease the wheels and Apple does not?

TikTok got fined €530 million this week for sending data to China. Sony €13.5 million in 2023 for abuse of dominant position and for disabling controllers for PS4. But the main fines have been on truck manufacturers (billions), snacks (Mondelēz - €338 million in 2024 and Coca-Cola just got raided), car glass (+ €700 million), and so on. Airbus, AWS, and Google are taking massive hits as well.

Some companies try to operate like EU doesn't have antitrust, anti-corruption, or privacy regulations at all. They fail miserably. Old tech like IBM... not a case in 15 years and they didn't even get fined for that. I would say it is a problem at C-suite level in some companies and Apple is on that list. It really is for Cook or the board to fix it.

To suggest that Apple simply ignores European "antitrust, anti-corruption, or privacy" regulations (why not toss in "human trafficking" while you're at it?) is ridiculous.

It is often literally impossible to comply with the letter of the law when it comes to international regulations. Or at least completely infeasible. Thus, every company has to make strategic decisions about how strictly they will try to comply with which regulations in which countries. These are often C-suite and board level decisions.

I have no reason to believe there is anything to "fix" with respect to how Apple handles this on-going challenge. It could very well be that a half billion dollar fine is the optimal outcome. I mean, sure, Apple doesn't want write a check that big, but it could well be that the expected cost of half-assed compliance was lower than the expected cost of rigorous compliance.

I will also point out that Apple is a leader in privacy, so tossing antirust and privacy in the same regulatory bucket is disingenuous. Nor have I heard of any corruptions complaints against our favorite fruit company.

Also, it would have been a distraction if Tim Cook were in it. It just makes more sense that it be the Netflix guy.

I could see them using Tim in some role next season, but it wasn't the right choice for that episode.

AppleInsider said:

The finger does attach to a hand -- it just doesn't have to touch the Magic Mouse

Are we sure?

Clearly Apple is hinting at a future of detachable digits.