nubus

jimh2 said:

There is a new sheriff in town who is not a pushover. Like him or not it is the reality the EU and other governments are facing and rethinking these fines and penalties will go a long way.

Trump is the old sheriff (in every way). The new European Parliament and Commission are far more anti U.S. than anything we have seen in the past and they are elected for 1 more year than Trump.

Vestager wasn't anti U.S at all. She was 200% for open markets and did the same towards European companies that tried to avoid competing. Those days are over. The politicians elected in EU are worried about X and Meta. To them Musk and Zuckerberg are foreign agents planning to meddle with European elections. Be assured that they will ban X and Meta first. Like U.S. is doing to TikTok and China did to Google. And no I don't like it, and you don't have to like this post. We really don't need for this to happen.

OctoMonkey said:

When they massively screw up, both CEOs and government officials should be fired instead of being allowed to resign...  and in my opinion needs to happen with some regularity.  How some of these people are considered adequately competent for the jobs they hold is beyond me.  If the board does not fire them, the board needs to be replaced, en masse!

Fail fast is at the core of being agile. I would say he did the right thing. Communication was open and Sonos rapidly delivered improvements. And the hardware... while even Apple reissued (yes!) HomePod and AirPods Max we have seen great products from Sonos.

Should we have demanded for Jobs to leave after the Cube, or when he delayed and later downgraded performance of all new PowerMac G4 models by 10-15%? Replacing the CEO is not always the answer. Perhaps replace the board instead or accept that even the best plans can fail?

Stabitha_Christie said:

I respectfully disagree with your perspective, but our disagreement extends beyond mere fact-checking or the principles of free speech.  Discussing those things wouldn't really be productive.The crux of our disagreement lies in your perception of publicly traded companies and governments as interchangeable entities.  You assert that Meta, along with the governments of North Korea and China, constitutes a singular type of organization.In contrast, I hold the view that publicly traded companies and governments are fundamentally distinct entities, serving vastly different purposes.  

Fully support your view. The idea that a company is somehow comparable to a nation is often seen here. It makes no sense. Companies have no legislative power and can't use physical force (Weber). Nations can easily ban products as seen from Apple Watch 9 to TikTok.

Some don't get the difference and it causes some odd "Meta has the right to..." arguments. Companies only have the rights given to them by nations. Like UAE banning FaceTime, UK demanding 5 years of warranty, Indonesia demanding investments, and EU (not a nation...but still) demanding USB-C.  Companies only exist if allowed by nations and they have to operate within the framework given to them.

jimh2 said:

I side t the new President will get this rectified. 

The policies of Trump have forced Apple to move production to India and Indonesia at pace. He decided to leave Afghanistan to Taliban (the final hours weren't pretty but the decision and timing were made by Trump). Will he give Ukraine to Putin? In that case TSMC and Taiwan are ready to take for China. Without Taiwan then Apple, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Amazon/AWS... all those huge US companies will depend on China for their core tech. There is no knowledge or manufacturing capability in the US for doing this at scale. All the AI tech and powerful processors produced by TSMC will then be produced by China. The knowledge gap that currently benefits US defense will be reversed.

I'm sure Apple will invest more in Indonesia. It makes sense and Apple is in no position to make a better deal.

Roborock launched the S4 Max before Apple did M1 Pro, Max, or Ultra.

Not sure why Apple adapted it. The base model is now SE on iPhone, on iPad it is nothing, on desktops it is mini, and for laptops Air. Air is neither the lightest on iPad or mid-range option on Mac. Air can even be part of the product name. Pro is on M-series level 2 of 4 while on A-series it is the top. On hardware Pro is the top except for Watch. And processors... <nothing>, Pro, Max - that isn't max, and Ultra (the true Max).

A complete mess. No wonder Dell felt the naming used by Roborock and Apple would be a perfect fit for their products. The interesting part is that Dell launched a tandem-OLED display for laptops. Same as iPad Pro but for laptops. Apple should have delivered that for MBP M4.