hydrogen

steveau said:

Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>

nht said:

gatorguy said:

nht said:

spheric said:

sdw2001 said:

I know this is silly, but I honestly wonder what would happen if Apple just ignored the ruling, or if it even publicly stated it wasnt paying.  What are they going to do...go in with guns and raid the offices?  

You realise that each and every product Apple manufactures in China and sells in the EU has to go through customs, yes? 

The EU can *easily* halt all Apple sales within its borders within a relatively short time, costing Apple billions. 

It won't come to that.

The US can respond equally to a trade war.  China and Russia will profit.  Amusingly if there 

The EU has no right to Apple worldwide profits.  The taxes are based on Apple sales outside the US, not Apple sales inside the EU.  They can go pound sand.

I don't think the EU is trying to claim taxes on Apple's worldwide profits. But with that said the EU has asserted the right to base anti-competition penalties on a company's world-wide revenues in a few instances so far, and apparently legally upheld. Microsoft immediately comes to mind, and Google may be next. Does the EU have a right to world-wide profits as a basis? Maybe and so far they have in a couple of high profile cases. So much for pounding sand, tho this Apple tax case would not be applicable. 

If Trump doesn't stand up to the EU over this the folks that voted for him will likely be unamused.  The anti-competition penalties are an end run around taxation of US multinationals and theft against the US treasury.  It would likely mean that President Trump would have to play nice with China in order to pound the EU INTO the sand but if necessary we should do it.  There should be friendly rivalry between the US and EU but this is ruling is punitive and we don't have to nor should we play nice.  That they have gone after Microsoft, Google and Apple is an indicator that US companies are targeted for enforcement and frankly protectionist.  The US treasury under a democratic president has indicated that it believes the EU actions to be outside the bounds of normal civilized play.  If they wish to play that way then there's all sorts of games we can play under a republican president friendly to Russia in the context of helping the UK and beating the absolute crap out of the EU.  We can ship LNG exclusively to the UK and let the rest of Europe pay Gazprom prices.  That should do wonders for their economies.  

Or only ship LNG to NATO countries that actually puts 2% of GDP into their military.  That would be Poland, UK, Greece and Estonia.  That would likely fit President Trump's agenda quite nicely.

If Apple has to bring some jobs back to the US to appease President Trump it'll be worth the supply chain disruption to make this goes away as it should go away.

I didn't vote for The Donald but if the Europeans think that this is a good time hit US companies with big fines they are complete idiots.