Apple's revenue surges, blows away targets

[Snake Alchemist]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's quarterly results blew past Wall Street's expectations as U.S. consumers snapped up near-record numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares up 8 percent.

The world's most valuable technology corporation returned to form after a rare miss in the previous quarter. It sold 37.04 million iPhones - its flagship product - and 15.43 million iPad tablets, doubling from a year earlier and easily outpacing already heightened expectations for a strong holiday season.

And it smashed estimates on all its results including gross margin, which came in at 44.7 percent during the quarter.

Apple's sales in the United States were particularly strong, with revenue rising 90 percent in the Americas region. Sales in Europe were up 55 percent even though the region was in the grip of a debt crisis that has hurt consumer confidence.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-revenue-surges-blows-past-213414848.html;_ylt=Ai2iVUlK4uqXiJi7f8NVzsuiuYdG;_ylu=X3oDMTQzOTJubTVqBG1pdANGaW5hbmNlIEZQIEp1bWJvdHJvbiBMaXRlBHBrZwMzMzk3OTM0Zi1iODU5LTNmNjUtYjAxNy1kODQzY2U3YTYxODcEcG9zAzEEc2VjA2p1bWJvdHJvbgR2ZXIDZTA3NzdjMDAtNDZkOS0xMWUxLWI0ZmEtNzk3OWRhNWJjNWQy;_ylg=X3oDMTFvdnRqYzJoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Maybe Foxconn will allocate an extra gram of rice to reward workers.

Then again, probably not.

[Snake Alchemist]

2. A drop of honey in each bowl. nt

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. Laced with melamine, of course. nt

[Snake Alchemist]

4. Well you can't expect them to splurge with REAL honey can you?

They're trying to run a business. An incredibly profitable business.

[frazzled]

6. Bingo

[ForgoTheConsequence]

7. There's a difference.

So there isn't a middle ground? I don't hear NOKIA being praised as some progressive role model for corporations. Steve Jobs and Apple were held up as bastions of progressiveness when in reality they were just as evil as every other corporation looting labor markets and exploiting people. They did a great job of selling their image though I have to admit, its a shame so many people bought into though.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

20. OK.

We're making the same point. Difference is you'll never see me with a cell phone avatar and you'll never see me passively defending CEO's and multinational corporations no matter how cute their designs are.

[Hissyspit]

13. When did people think that? Ten years ago?

Steve Jobs and Apple were also, and are mostly now, held up as bastions of well-made innovative products with excellent customer service, which is, for the most part, true. So, yes, there is a difference. Crappy products with terrible customer service response built by Foxxconn slave labor, or very good products with customer service reps who live in the U.S. and actually use the products built by Foxxconn slave labor. Where do you think the American consumer dollar went?

Not defending Apple or corporate disregard for the horrible things they do, but these same old arguments are outdated. The continuing pressure should be on ALL these organizations and what the future of our consumer society is going to be. Make them ALL deal with it.

[klook]

47. Don't try to take away their "fanbois" bashing privileges!

For some it's a major righteous indignation outlet.

Your points are all spot on, btw. Singling out one corporate offender for scorn because you're irritated by their customers' preference for their products strikes me as kind of odd.

[wtmusic]

71. Because they're spectacularly successful must mean their abuse is egregious...

or maybe they just make a helluva product.

[Snake Alchemist]

8. Or lobby for a windfall profits tax. nt

[onenote]

9. how would you define a "windfall" profit

Last edited Tue Jan 24, 2012, 10:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Does the fact that Apple made a product that lots of people decided they wanted to buy create a "windfall"?

[suston96]

17. Not a windfall......

If the only mobile phone people could buy was an Apple product that might be a windfall.

If the only computer operating system people could buy was made by Microsoft.......well, that's another story.

[Snake Alchemist]

19. Profit vs. lowest paid employee. nt

[Mojorabbit]

21. I think I read a few days ago that it takes 8 bucks to make an iphone.

That is some serious profit.

[Dreamer Tatum]

25. At that margin they could employ actual Americans to make them

and still make out like bandits.

But they won't.

[onenote]

41. Funny. I just read it costs $174 to make an iphone

I have a link: http://www.andpop.com/2008/07/19/final-cost-to-manufacture-the-iphone-17433/

Please share yours.

[Mojorabbit]

46. You are absolutely right.

I read the eight dollars somewhere and have not been able to find it. It may have been labor costs. I shouldn't have posted it without finding the link to the article I was thinking I read it in first!

[JustAnotherGen]

64. I think that's pretty on target

Most of the carriers purchase them from Apple for between $600 and $800 a pop.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

10. That.

Or at least a tax the punishes them for making a their products overseas. Its obvious judging by this and the amount of money that they are sitting on that they can afford to manufacture some products in the United States. I know this might cut into the 378 MILLION yes that's right 378 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!! that the CEO of Apple made last year, but hey we all have to make sacrifices.




Apple CEO makes 378 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577151510292401788.html

[ForgoTheConsequence]

18. I'm sorry.

Tim Cook is that you?

I joke.


My mistake though.

It was quite the distortion. He isn't going to get that 378 MILLION!!!!!! for another 10 years. He'll have to settle for the $900,000. He'll probably have to eat ramen and hot dogs to make ends meet, after all he only received 60 million in compensation the year before and has only cashed in 100 MILLION!!!!!!! in stock so far!

[Dreamer Tatum]

26. Spirited defense of CEO compensation by you, there.

What else would anyone expect from someone who worships the company?

[Dreamer Tatum]

45. Bookmarked for when CEO compensation comes up again

I bet you aren't so discriminating when it comes to non-Apple CEOs.

[Snake Alchemist]

66. Isn't this also how execs at Goldman Sachs are paid? nt

[Dreamer Tatum]

76. It's exactly how they're paid. It's just that Apple money is GOOD...

...and GS money is BAD.

[Snake Alchemist]

84. No?

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) awarded Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein $19 million in compensation for 2010, almost double the prior year, and granted him the first cash bonus in three years.

The total includes $5.4 million in cash, $12.6 million in restricted stock, a $600,000 salary and about $464,000 in other benefits, the New York-based firm’s proxy statement showed. Blankfein’s $9.8 million pay for 2009 included $9 million in restricted stock plus salary and other compensation.


And this is just the CEO.

[Snake Alchemist]

95. Moving the goal posts?

In 2009 the vast majority was restricted stock options so GS had the right idea in 2009?

[primavera]

35. Great idea

I suspect that much of our grievance with Apple is that their success does nothing to benefit the country, only a bunch of rich people living on the Riviera. If their success translated into increased tax revenues that enabled us to reduce the deficit, invest in our infrastructure, improve education and healthcare, etc., then their good fortune would be everyone's good fortune.

[Wait Wut]

11. Heh. +1

[Hissyspit]

15. It's a biscuit and tea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

[Moostache]

38. I read that article and it just makes me sad.

Profits over People...the motto of the world today.

Profits are more important than communities where a corporation claims to be "Headquartered"...
Profits are more important than the ecology and responsible use of resources and energy...
Profits are more important than the human toll of warehousing labor (in what is 1/8th of a step shy of concentration camps)...
Profits are more important than the people whose blood sweat and tears bring an idea to fruition...
Profits are more important than thinking things through for the long term...like the day that you tip past the point where your customer base runs out of money and your production base never made enough to buy what you're selling anyway...

Profits, profits, profits...of course anything worth doing is worth doing well for money, but there comes a point when the old axioms and expectations must go the way of the Do-do...if the world does not come to grips with the idea of controlling profit margins relative to the reinvestment and wages paid by a producer, then we are all doomed.

Those at the top - like Mittens the clown - shriek about how unfair the tax code is, while at the same time they pay nearly a THIRD of my percentage rate for taxation.

If I make a dollar as a working American, after state, federal and local taxes, I clear about $0.60.
If Mittens "invests" his money and makes an equivalent dollar, HE clears $0.85.

Nevermind that he also collects many, many times more $1 intervals than I do!

[MattBaggins]

39. America can't compete with slave labor anymore

We are doomed it would seem.

[harun]

24. Rumor has it the chocolate ration is to increase, but these rumors tend to be false.

[PavePusher]

90. Increased from 30 grams to 20 grams a week. Possibly. n/t

[valerief]

29. Why waste it when that money can go to rich people instead? nt

[stockholmer]

81. it will be PLASTIC rice

http://veryvietnam.com/2011-01-22/china-makes-fake-rice-from-plastic-vietnam-reacts/

Fake Plastic Rice from China

According to the Korean-language “Weekly Hong Kong” (which many Vietnam websites are referencing as well), Singapore media claim that fake rice is being distributed in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. This “rice” is a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic. It is formed by mixing the potatoes and sweet potatoes into the shape of rice grains, then adding industrial synthetic resins. Since the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked. Such synthetic resins can also be very harmful if consumed.

A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there would be an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice. Meanwhile, the low cost of the fake rice is allowing wholesalers to make large profits.
snip

-------------------------------

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/08/report-china-fake-rice-plastic/

[LanternWaste]

109. with all the same relevance warranted...

Maybe a lot of things will happen. Then again, probably not.


(with all the same relevance warranted...)

[DemonSpawn]

14. How many of those consumers

were spoiled-ass teenagers?

[valerief]

31. If every teenager in the world were spoiled-ass, it would be a better world. Unfortunately, most

teens are desperately poor.

[onenote]

42. So what if teenagers buy iphones

"Spoiled ass teenagers' (your phrase) buy lots of stuff: iphones, Nike sneakers, $4 lattes at Starbucks. Do you think that they shouldn't spend money? And for what its worth, I know a lot of teens that buy those things with money they earn at after school and summer jobs.

[shaayecanaan]

22. Its a bubble...

they are doing extremely well, granted, but even so their market capitalisation is way ahead of itself and there is no way they can sustain these kinds of results.

This is the Croc shoes story playing itself out all over again, albeit over a longer time. Eventually, Apple will start running out of opportunities to sell its phones. The amount of people wanting to upgrade from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 14 will likely be less than the people wanting to buy the iPhone 3 or 4.

There is also the issue of competition. Android is doing much better in developing markets because it is more flexible and can be sold at a variety of price points. The biggest selling smartphone in Kenya is the Huawei Ideos, running Android 2.1. In China, Android is everywhere, they will probably find a way to put it on an electric toothbrush eventually.

Even if Android doesnt dominate it will eventually force Apple to compromise on price, which will have an effect on its margins. Im not sure app developers will be happy paying a 30% apple tax when they can develop for Android for free.

[DaveJ]

27. I'm not sure it's a bubble. It's kinda scary.

What is going to take Apple's place as the most user friendly device(s)? I can't think of any.

It's scary because we are seeing this on the outset of a new technology -- the internet. We might require monopoly regulations at some point, but I doubt that will happen. It's different now because they control not only the technology but the information.

There are a handful of companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and US Government Inc, who dominate the online environment. This is not natural. It creates a scenario of dominance. These companies cannot provide jobs to 99% of people, but still they effect our lives in subtle unseen ways. I have no solution for this offhand. We live with it?

[mdmc]

32. yes

[usrname]

33. Apple is still a hardware company

While they may hold a huge lion share of tablets, their hold on smartphones is not that great, and their hold in personal computers is running just under 10%. They're hardly a monopoly.

Microsoft, during the 90s, where 90% of all computers ran Windows, that's a monopoly. Being a monopoly isn't necessarily a crime. Abusing the monopoly by performing certain monopolistic practices such as undercutting competitors, leveraging the monopoly to squeeze out extra money by not providing all the services expected... that's being a criminal through a monopoly.

Apple still has to fight every competitor on the market.

[wtmusic]

28. All kinds of upside potential for Apple.

Macintosh market share has doubled in the last four years and shows no signs of abating. And Android is already suffering from "PC phenomenon" - apps don't work consistently on all hardware.

For people who value their time and peace of mind, Apple reigns supreme.

[shaayecanaan]

43. Mac's share has doubled from 2.5% to 5%

and shows no signs of really breaking out of what is essentially a niche position. From the POV of Apple their Macs are really nickel-and-dimes stuff - their stag profits come predominantly from their mobile devices.

And they have done extraordinarily well. They have cornered 78% of the mp3 player market, and have a fair chunk of the smartphone market, although Android has steadily made inroads.

However - the amount of profit that they make from iPods is down significantly. They have held market share, but have only been able to do so by reducing the price point to a range where they could compete effectively compete.

It will be the same with the iphone. The iphone 4s is currently selling for about $860 AUD retail here. This is an absolutely stag profit, they are making something like $300 per phone which is amazing for the electronics market.

But, they felt compelled to re-release the iphone 3gs for $399 to try and stem the flow of people adapting cheaper Android devices. And the iphone 4's retail price was $860 AUD at launch, an indication they they are starting to feel pinched on price.

So, there are potential upsides but a lot of downsides.

[wtmusic]

44. You must be in some kind of Microsoft-induced 90s time warp.

Some niche...and Macs are now bringing in more revenue than iPads:

?w=657

Quite a few nickels and dimes.

Oh, and check out "Windows" - even better than DOS.

[shaayecanaan]

56. The first graph is US market share...

and not world market share, in which Mac has about 5.2%.

The second graph is revenue, not profits. Even so, you have about 20% attributed to Macs and the rest to their mobile devices. As the OP made clear the growth has largely come from mobile devices.

[wtmusic]

68. Or 91%, if you look at personal computers above $1,000

"Apple has 91% of market for $1,000+ PCs, says NPD

Move over Microsoft. Apple can claim big, big market share numbers, too. According to NPD, in June, nine out of 10 dollars spent on computers costing $1,000 or more went to Apple. Mac revenue market share in the "premium" price segment was 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.

By the way, Apple's command of the premium market is way up from first quarter 2008, when, according to NPD, Mac revenue share was 66 percent. Gee, and it seemed so high when I broke that story."

http://betanews.com/2009/07/22/apple-has-91-of-market-for-1-000-pcs-says-npd/

Microsoft/PC manufacturers still dominate the toy market (oops, is my bias showing?)

[Snake Alchemist]

69. So it's a luxury item? nt

[wtmusic]

72. Not if you value your time.

I always thought people who were willing to deal with PC problems had the luxury of too much time.

[Snake Alchemist]

74. No matter how much time I have I can't seem to afford luxury items. nt

[wtmusic]

75. I'd choose a 5-year-old Mac over the fastest PC available

and they both probably cost the same.

Plenty of dealings with both.

[Snake Alchemist]

77. I'd just choose a laptop I can afford.

I've had no problems with my HP one I bought this year. I've used macs before and like them, but can't drop the dough on them. I'm in the process of building a screaming fast system for video processing.

[wtmusic]

78. Sounds like a good call for your needs.

Nothing like watching paint dry waiting for video to render.

[savalez]

88. Did you try rendering HDV

on that "5 Year Old" Mac you boasted about? That was a laugh.

[shaayecanaan]

92. no, its just overpriced

The hardware inside a mac is barely middling compared to a pc of similar price. Even if you actually like their software, you'd be far better off buying decent hardware and simply installing mac os on it. But then you wouldn't have the funky styling of a mac which I suspect is the hook for most apple fanbois as macs are useless pieces of crap otherwise.

[shaayecanaan]

101. If I buy software, I consider myself entitled to install it on whatever the hell I please...

although I realise that such subversive notions can be a little hard for apple fanbois to take in.

[shaayecanaan]

104. Requiring someone to use software only on a specific platform...

is about as legally enforceable as a peanut butter company requiring that its spread be used only on a particular brand of bread.

Its also known as "first line forcing", and is illegal if it amounts to a misuse of market power. Remember that Microsoft got in trouble for requiring its customers to use its browser as well as its operating system.

Of course, it is also an outrageous attack on consumer rights, but apple fanbois are so used to taking it up the arse from their Dear Leader they think it tastes like freedom.

[shaayecanaan]

106. I can do better than that...

I can direct them to a whole web site devoted to the practice of installing Apple software on third party hardware:-

http://www.hackintosh.com/

By some miracle, the web site is still online. Apparently Apple does not have the omnipotence of Jesus, or perhaps Apple's lawyers are too busy suing their competitors for making better phones.

[shaayecanaan]

108. Man, these apple fanbois are capable of such withering put downs...

"Descriptions of how to commit a crime are allowed."

Crime? I wasn't aware that installing Apple software on third party hardware was an offence according to the criminal code of any given jurisdiction.

"Then again, maybe you're not important enough to
be worth Apple's time."

Zing!!! I guess this is about as witty as it gets from the kind of mindless sheep you see milling around in Apple stores.

[got root]

100. Apple is world famous for its attention to UX detail

And that's why they are doing so well with consumer grade computers, wether handheld, laptop, or desktop.

Other companies now know that UX is king, but they don't yet know how to achieve the same level apple has across the WHOLE device.

It is very hard to do, or others would have done it by now.

[JustAnotherGen]

65. I tend to agree

I remember when RIM was in. . . they became a one trick pony. When I look at the landscape of diversity in the other phone manufacturer's lines of business (LG washers and dryers, Samsung refrigerators, etc. etc.) - Apple could go the way of RIM and Nokia. Granted - they have their computers/laptops/itunes things - but sooner or later they have to expand beyond that. People are still carrying their RIM Storm 1's launched in late 2008 in spite of all of the new and cool blackberries.

And sooner or later - something 'newer and cooler' comes along.

[onehandle]

85. LOL.

heh.

[aaaaaa5a]

23. Wow! Think of all the chinese children they will be able to hire for 10 dollars per day now! nt

[msongs]

34. no they can lower it to $5 for the prestige of working for Apple nt

[Odin2005]

30. Chinese wage-slavery is profitable? NO SHIT!

[OhioChick]

36. See what you can accomplish with the cheapest labor possible? n/t

[cbdo2007]

48. haha, wow - I wonder where all the responders here get their products?!?!

Probably 75% of the things they use are made in China yet it's always Apple that takes the heat.

[emulatorloo]

50. Yeah, here's a list for reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

Major Clients

Foxconn manufactures products for companies including:

(country of headquarters in parentheses)
Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)[25]
Apple Inc. (United States)[26]
ASRock (Taiwan)
Asus (Taiwan)
Barnes & Noble (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Dell (United States)
EVGA Corporation (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)[27]
Intel (United States)
IBM (United States)
Lenovo (China)
Logitech (Switzerland)
Microsoft (United States)
MSI (Taiwan)
Motorola (United States)
Netgear (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)[26]
Panasonic (Japan)
Philips (Netherlands)
Sharp (Japan)
Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)[28]
Toshiba (Japan)
Vizio (United States)

[ChadwickHenryWard]

52. The "everybody else does it" defense doesn't hold water.

It even has a name in formal reasoning - tu quoque - literally, "you, too." The fact that practically ever other firm, foreign and domestic, uses these kinds of abusive labor practices does not make it right for Apple to do it. This article is about Apple, and it is not improper to point out that, despite enjoying times of plenty, they use brutally efficient quasi-slave labor from China.

[emulatorloo]

54. Who is making that defense? Nobody.

The poster you responded to certainly wasn't. On the other hand I see lots of people giving lots of lame excuses about why they single out Apple and ignore every other vendor who uses Foxconn.

None of those companies , including Apple should be doing it. Yet we never have that honest discussion about the issue nor our culpability in it, because some DU'ers have an almost pathological need to pretend it is only about Apple. While typing on their PC filled with FOXCONN components.

[fascisthunter]

61. Exactly... it's not as if other companies are not utilizing low wage workers

it's fucking sad... but it isn't the number one reason Apple is doing so well.

[d_r]

51. $13 billion in profit

that's almost $2 for every man, woman, child on the planet earth. In a quarter. Profit.

[madrchsod]

53. apple is a far worse company than walmart

it`s kind`a silly when people who own apple products complain about the evils of walmart .

[dkf]

55. Wow not a single kind word for the worldwide phenomenon that apple has created.

Amazing.

Personally I love my iPhone and I'm glad people around the world are able to enjoy it. Yes the Chinese have it tough but they are improving their futures by doing so. More power to them. One day they will be having us do the crap jobs while they do the engineering and innovating.

[shaayecanaan]

57. Myself, I love my ivory back-scratcher and my gorilla hand ash tray...

and I'm glad to be giving employment opportunities to the fuzzy wuzzies that carry my hunting rifle and keep my pith helmet spotlessly clean. One day they might even be able to afford to buy something themselves.

[Snake Alchemist]

70. Well when you have a few billion, you'd expect some to be able to afford them.

Even if the percentage is 1% that is still a lot.

[fascisthunter]

62. They have... they are now the best at what they do

all other companies are pretty much doing the same thing, which is using underpaid wage earners to do the manufacturing for them. It's a sad reality, but in the end, Apple surpasses most companies in their field through innovation and concept.

[raouldukelives]

73. Owning the phone is fine.

I mean, it's a great gadget. When it starts to get shady is when you invest in Apple. Profiting off the horrible treatment of slave labor. I would imagine it would be pretty hard to find a "progressive liberal" with money in Apple these days. Especially in light of the human costs as well as environmental. Might as well own BP, GE or Lockheed.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

80. How is owning the product not benefitting from the cruelty of the labor?

If nobody bought the product made with quasi-slave labor, the company would not be able to utilize it. Buying the product is direct participation in the abusive system. It is up to the consumers to be aware and stop the abuses.

Also, Al Gore is extensively invested in Apple and receives stock as compensation for serving on Apple's board.

[raouldukelives]

86. I agree with you 100%. However for me it has to do with knowing.

If I "know" how the product is produced or the costs to the environment then I am completely culpable when I purchase or endorse the product.
I think the majority of people who own the "product" have no idea of it's origins. They are bombarded with advertisements, celebrity endorsements and peer pressure. I think your standard consumer doesn't care or care to know and I can't really blame them. It's a sick, sad world.
You could extend that to many of the shareholders (owners) of the companies that create them. I'd imagine many people who have 401k's have no clue they are profiting from obfuscating the affect of oil spills, child labor or the MIC.
Once you know however, for myself at least, it all changes.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

99. Add to that, what can one person do?

While I am currently exercising a personal boycott on all consumer electronics, because they are all made in the Foxconn factory, I know that eventually I am going to have to buy a cell phone or a computer mouse of something. What the fuck am I going to do? Sometimes I try to enlist other people, they just make excuses. I think the only way to stop it is an outright ban on the product of such labor, like the ban on conflict diamonds.

[dkf]

93. What happens when that apple worker turns into an investor and owner who employs you?

That what is going to happen to Chinese workers. I'm not worried about their conditions...they will inherit the mantle that we've been holding. You will be feeling more sorry for your kids than for them soon enough.

[ChadwickHenryWard]

98. How?

How will that possibly happen? Joining a labor union carries a minimum five year jail sentence in China. They have absolutely no ability to negotiate or press for better conditions. There is one thing that is responsible for the existence of the middle class in the industrialized world - organized labor. The only reason you enjoy things like the eight-hour day, the weekend, occupational safety and health protections, and a pension are because men and women fought and died for them. Who fights for the Chinese? Foreign governments, firms, and consumers are all complicit in the abuses of the totalitarian police state of the People's Republic. Exactly when and how is this system going to disappear? Just because?

And what kind of defense of their conditions is that? They would do it to us if they could? That is so unbelievably perverse.

[fascisthunter]

63. Apple Has now Become the Best at what they do

as all other competitors are doing, they too are utilizing slave labor. It sucks, because it doesn't have to be this way.

[DeathToTheOil]

67. Apple's revenge surges

That's what I thought the headline was at first.

[stockholmer]

82. did they pull a Santorum, and surge from behind?

[sarcasmo]

83. Wonder what tax rate Apple pays.

[savalez]

89. Apple: KING OUTSOURCER

Corporations are people my friend!

[OhioChick]

91. Barack Obama and Steve Jobs argued over outsourcing

ANI Jan 22, 2012, 10.13PM IST

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama and the late Steve Jobs had a terse exchange last February, over Apple out-sourcing the manufacturing of its famous products.

The New York Times had reported on this matter last February, and had said that when Jobs was about to give an answer, Obama interrupted him with a query and asked 'what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?'

It wasn't long ago that Apple used to brag about its products being made in America, but nowadays almost none of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products sold last year, are made in America.

According to an insider, Obama had asked, "Why can't that work come home?" and Jobs' reply was clear-cut, "those jobs aren't coming back".

More: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-22/news/30652794_1_apple-founder-steve-jobs-barack-obama