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Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

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Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#91
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of a company more blatantly engaged in anti-competitive practices than Apple, but I'm glad to see all that unfairly amassed wealth benefitting even the lowest rungs of its corporate hierarchy through the unusual benefit of not being terminated at the drop of a hat. Bravo!

> I can't think of a company more blatantly engaged in anti-competitive practices than Apple In a world where Amazon, Meta, Google, Wal-Mart, Time-Warner, Comcast, etc exist, you think Apple is the most anti-competitive?

Amazon, Meta, Google are most certainly cut from the same cloth, only slightly smaller. For Wal-Mart I can't think of anything strictly anit-competitive, but its practice of paying sub-subsistance wages and counting on government relief programs to make up the difference is so disgusting I don't know how to describe. Time-Warner, Comcast I'm not too familiar with, but as I understand they are under regulations that prohibit them from dropping your connection when e.g. they find you visiting ycombinatior.com, a site where their business is frequently ridiculed, which is certainly a step in the right direction and the model that should be applied broadly and forcefully to all of the above.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#92
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, … are also sitting absolutely giant piles of money as well.

Google has the focus of a crack addled flea and has products that aren’t profitable and people working on them - including probably 4 new messaging apps simultaneously. Facebook predicted that it would lose billions in potential revenue because of Apple making tracking optional. Microsoft is basically just cutting employees that are on products that it doesn’t care about anymore. You can say what you will about Apple…

They still put out stinkers, they just kill them fast. Ping?

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#93

Apple is a generally more well run, mature, patient, and scrupulous company than most others.

You make them sound like saints. They are not, and they have a history of being less scrupulous than some of these other companies. Here's just a small example of what they're capable of when their obsession for secrecy and control makes them flex their corporate muscle: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/09/07/iphone.5.probe/ind... And we didn't even talk about their sweatshops in China which has always had persist…

> where employees kill themselves an awful lot

Is that true? Last I read[0] "the suicide rate was comparable to its host country’s".

0: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/foxconn-l...

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#94
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it should belong to customers and employees

Most Apple employees are shareholders. I don't get the point that the money should belong to the customers. They gave it to Apple freely upon exchange for a product. Your argument kind of sounds that products should be sold at cost.

Well, cost plus a reasonable markup, but yes. None of this "charge as much as the market will bear" bullshit.

And does Apple offer stock to its retail employees?

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#95
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, … are also sitting absolutely giant piles of money as well.

Google has the focus of a crack addled flea and has products that aren’t profitable and people working on them - including probably 4 new messaging apps simultaneously. Facebook predicted that it would lose billions in potential revenue because of Apple making tracking optional. Microsoft is basically just cutting employees that are on products that it doesn’t care about anymore. You can say what you will about Apple…

Apple is full of lack of focus these days. The laptops use usb-c to charge like the rest of the worlds thankfully, but the phone still uses lightning. New ipad supports the old apple pencil and not the new one for some reason. Can't let them off too easy about the butterfly keyboards either.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#96
post #89

I don't recall whether this was ever stated explicitly, but I always had the impression that this is one of the elements of Apple's strategy that is still driven by the tribal memory of the late 1990s turmoil. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were there at the time, and especially the former (who also had witnessed a 1980s bust) was determined to never be in this position again. So as a consequence: * Apple is hoarding c…

Why does apple hoard cash instead of buy back their stock? 5 years ago they had 90 billion cash in hand. If they put that into their stock then, It would be up at least 260% by now even with the losses last year, then if they need cash they could just take a loan against the stock.

They actually have done massive stock buybacks. The company is just an incredible money printer.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#97
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has the focus of a crack addled flea and has products that aren’t profitable and people working on them - including probably 4 new messaging apps simultaneously. Facebook predicted that it would lose billions in potential revenue because of Apple making tracking optional. Microsoft is basically just cutting employees that are on products that it doesn’t care about anymore. You can say what you will about Apple…

They still put out stinkers, they just kill them fast. Ping?

OTOH the butterfly keyboard was one of their biggest stinkers that was not killed nearly fast enough, and the new keyboards still don't feel as good as the 2012s.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like him halving his compensation makes any material difference in the ability of the company to avoid layoffs.

It's a PR stunt. Get shareholders and the public talking about 'oh poor CEO he lost a few of the many many millions he earns a year'

I can’t find a single instance of this being said about his pay cut in the media. If you could support this claim, it’d be appreciated.

Also, as an Apple shareholder, that’s definitely not my reaction to the pay cut.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#99

Apple is a generally more well run, mature, patient, and scrupulous company than most others.

Apple is the only one that doesn’t seem to start up hundreds of obviously useless projects. Google will hire thousands to work on an obviously doomed streaming service, to build a new OS, and so many other obviously bad ideas and then just fire them all later. Vanishingly few Apple products seem to be discontinued. Usually after a long life like the iPod.

Don't they have an Apple Car? Like a literal car they were working on making? I guess that's the exception though.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/12/apple-is-allegedly-work...

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#100
post #17

I don’t think Apple went on a hiring spree like the rest of the tech giants during the pandemic, but there is still time for even Apple to start cutting jobs.

Well, Tim Cook started by halving his compensation. I didn't hear anything like that from his fellow CEOs who all "took full responsibility" for the choice of going for mass firing instead.

I think what he halved was his stock compensation, no? I think his salary is still 3m a year, the rest of the comp is stock or bonus.
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