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Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

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Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#221
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 2017 turns out to be the year the VR starts to hit the main stream, which it could be, it will be interesting to see what Apple's response will be.

VR has a massive hurdle to get over. You can't expect people to drop $600 on a headset _and_ (at least) $1k on a machine that can run it. Costs will come down, but 2017 won't be the year. I expect VR to grow, but only in the gaming market.

Not according to Microsoft, VR is going to be a big push for them this year. Granted a lot can go wrong, but they are addressing all the points you just listed:

* Headset Pricing: Major OEMs will be releasing headsets starting at $300 [0]

* Lowering system specs for VR [1]

* Not just a gaming focus: Windows 10 creators update puts an emphasis on 3D and Mixed-Reality, including a 'holographic' interface [2]

[0] http://1reddrop.com/2017/01/06/microsoft-announces-299-windo... [1] http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2016/12/08/microsoft-unveils... [2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/upcoming-features

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#222
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be true except that there are fixed costs of living. Say Tim Cook was making three million less -- is he going to have to make lifestyle changes to spend 3 million less a year? No way. A person making 60k a year losing 15% of their income? There's likely to be significant lifestyle changes.

I'm pretty sure that there are lifestyles that burn several millions per year, and my guess would be there are people living a happy life with less than 60k. but of course it's true that the further you go up the scale, the more absurd it becomes to talk about serious comfort losses, and there's a point on the lower end where we're talking about actual poverty.

You might be hard pressed to construct one without getting a bit crazy. Most of the cost is going to be salaries of staff. At the extremes you have the Royal Family of England[1] ($43M) and Warren Buffet[2] ([1] http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/money/mortgages-bills/how-much-...

[2] (warning self starting video) http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/10/buf...

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#223

How is Tim Cook still CEO of Apple? Forget sales for a moment and just consider the damage Apple's brand is suffering. $300 books, headphone jacks, unreliable cloud services, missed product launches. In may ways Apples becoming the butt of jokes, a symbol of ignorance. Apple's in total disarray right now and the most loyal followers, myself included, are either jumping ship or seriously considering. The mistakes bein…

Apple is in "disarray" in the same sense that Facebook is dying.

If your judgment of the entire company comes down to whether a new iPhone can be physically plugged into a new MacBook Pro, then I suppose it might seem to be in disarray. Apple's taking some heat now because they're working towards an ecosystem that is not based on wires at all to the greatest extent possible.

Apple has been the butt of jokes at least since 2008 when I first got my first Apple product (an old 17" MacBook Pro). Back when I was looking at laptops then, I saw the same complaints that I see about the new MacBook Pro: too expensive, specs aren't good enough, etc., etc. None of this is new.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#224
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They not be "OK" in principle, but they are the demographic most likely to do it (and to be able to do it) anyway. You mention: "monitors/tvs/keyboards/drives". Well, keyboards and drives are trivial, as they use USB. So those people can just buy a USB-A to USB-C cable for $10 and be done with it (no dongle required if the keyboard doesn't have a fixed cable, and hard disks don't have fixed cables in the first p…

I've had a couple dozen keyboards dating back to the AT over the years, and I can't recall any with a non-fixed cable. That'd be pretty cool. :-/ It's more that I can carry my 2014 macbook anywhere in my house or office or anyone else's and probably connect it to anything I want or need to, without an adapter. Works, say, 99% of the time. With the 2016 it would work 0% of the time today (well, audio equipment excepte…

>I've had a couple dozen keyboards dating back to the AT over the years, and I can't recall any with a non-fixed cable. That'd be pretty cool. :-/

High end keyboards sometimes feature one. E.g:

http://www.coolermaster.com/peripheral/keyboards/novatouchtk...

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since it is impossible to give a precise estimate of each manager's contribution to the firm's output, it is inevitable that this process yields decisions that are largely arbitrary and dependent on hierarchical relationships and on the relative bargaining power of the individuals involved. It is only reasonable to assume that people in a position to set their own salaries have a natural incentive to treat themselves…

I largely disagree with Piketty in this case. There are metrics which are available to management which provide the specific insights needed to drive compensation to the most appropriate individuals. I do not disagree that there management systems which ignore those metrics and base their compensation on relationships. I agree with the basic thesis that as the productivity of workers (as measured by $ generated per w…

> the root of that gain has been the transition for goods economies to information economies

Piketty argues that the root of the move towards equality from 1945-1995 was long-lasting economic shocks after WWII:

Quite different in their effect were the rates of 20–30 percent or higher that were imposed in most wealthy countries in the wake of the military, economic, and political shocks of 1914–1945. The upshot of such taxes was that each successive generation had to reduce its expenditures and save more (or else make particularly profitable investments) if the family fortune was to grow as rapidly as average income. Hence it became more and more difficult to maintain one's rank. Conversely, it became easier for those who started at the bottom to make their way, for instance by buying businesses or shares sold when estates went to probate.

> Given the challenges of creating barriers to entry, the information economics will (in my opinion of course) eventually force capital to the creators away from management.

Until we can eat information, or make a house out of information, we won't be living in an information economy. (Even at that point you can bet that someone will have figured out how to gate/moat/control/curate/distribute the most "necessary" information, much as corporations and the press do today). For now we need to rely on taxation to redistribute the returns on capital:

Without taxes, society has no common destiny, and collective action is impossible. This has always been true. At the heart of every major political upheaval lies a fiscal revolution. The Ancien Régime was swept away when the revolutionary assemblies voted to abolish the fiscal privileges of the nobility and clergy and establish a modern system of universal taxation. The American Revolution was born when subjects of the British colonies decided to take their destiny in hand and set their own taxes. ("No taxation without representation"). Two centuries later the context is different, but the heart of the issue remains the same. How can sovereign citizens democratically decide how much of their resources they wish to devote to common goals such as education, health, retirement, inequality reduction, employment, sustainable development, and so on?

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#226
post #145
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the headphones are meant for the phone?

Since the iphone was released was posible to use the headphones with computer I don't get why this change.

To save space (inwards, not height), nudge users to wireless which they believe is the future, and help with waterproofing?

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#227
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds a bit like "my income is normal, and everyone above that is rich"-thinking that a lot of people have.(if there's a word for that i'd appreciate any hints :) ) i'd definitely consider engineers at google to be rich and don't see how another 200k makes that much of a difference. you think these execs are rich and don't see how another million makes a difference. and the execs consider billionaires to be ric…

This would be true except that there are fixed costs of living. Say Tim Cook was making three million less -- is he going to have to make lifestyle changes to spend 3 million less a year? No way. A person making 60k a year losing 15% of their income? There's likely to be significant lifestyle changes.

Whether or not it necessitates a 'lifestyle change' depends on what you spend as a proportion of your income; not your income alone.

Furthermore, I think any financial advisor would advise that your 'lifestyle' not depend on one year's bonus!

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#228
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but what about maybe another yacht? some island? that limited edition lamborghini? oh you could collect art. use your bonus to get more of that. i think this "if i had this specific amount of money, then i'd have everything i could possibly desire" is unlikely to be true, you'll find more things to spend your money on. another thought: you could donate all of it. the perfect money sink. it actually helps, and more of…

Obviously I can't answer for anyone but myself, and I personally wouldn't be motivated to get a second yacht given how much work keeping one up is (not that I have one). But how about you? Do you feel better about yourself if you have more art? or more cars? a bigger house? a staff? And if so, why does that make you feel better about yourself?

Personally I feel better when I worry less about money. Once I reached that point money became less of a motivator. Career promotions and title changes are now my primary motivator.

Sure my family with an extra 100k could do a handful of extra things in life but quality of life isn't going to change because of it.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there no Lightning to USB C cable?

Buy an iphone. Buy a macbook. Now try to connect the two. That's what he meant. It's possible with additional accessories, but that's not the point.

Well, this seems to be a trend. Buying a new power adaptor for new macbook:

* Buy adapter. * Buy extension cord. * Buy USB-C cable.

Those aren't packaged together anymore so now you get 3 separate boxes full of packaging just for a power adaptor. It feels wasteful... not to mention annoying if the apple sales person forgets to tell you you need to buy USB-C separately! And the correct one at that.

Re: Apple cuts Tim Cook's pay 15% for missing sales goals

#230

Like others I don't shed a lot of tears when an exec makes only 89% of their multi-million dollar target bonus :-) I asked an exec at Oracle once about how it was even motivating. For much of my career I've had some sort of bonus associated with my salary, at Sun, NetApp, Google all had bonus programs (with different tweaks). And for an engineer it could be a huge thing. At Google with all the multipliers in place yo…

"The only difference between $10 million and $50 million is an astounding $40 million." - Dave Chappelle
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