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| ▲ | nicoburns 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > The privacy is more of a market position thing than it is a political thing. It is a market position, but companies do have some choice in which market positions they choose to take. And I wouldn't underestimate the effect of the personal views of the CEO in that. | |
| ▲ | lostlogin 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > and it helps deprive Google and other services from monetizing their customer base. The payment Apple gets from Google for being the default search might help explain this. It would be hard to turn down the sums Apple gets. https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/03/just-one-word-in-the-google-a... | |
| ▲ | greggsy 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If you’re referring to their AI services being ‘woefully behind’, that’s just a market sector that they’ve chosen not to focus too much effort on. That was a sensible gamble too, given how unpredictable that sector is five years after it was released. I’m not sure what else they are behind on frankly, as their current offerings have been extremely stable from day dot. How many products has Google released and killed in the past 20 years? Apple managed to land on a good thing with Apple iTunes and iPhotos in the early oughts, and managed to transition those core services into Apple Music and iCloud with little to no disruption to users. iCloud is generally a pretty predictable service that delivers on a core set of user requirements very well. Also, thief productivity suite isn’t meant to completely replace Office, and for a free package, it meets many users needs perfectly fine. | | |
| ▲ | bigyabai 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > That was a sensible gamble too, given how unpredictable that sector is five years after it was released. Define sensible. Apple's B2C margins are peanuts compared to what Nvidia's commanding right now, and they're both ARM retailers competing for the same cutting-edge fab space. |
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| ▲ | 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | charcircuit 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | >but is woefully behind on the software iOS is ahead on software security compared to Android, Windows, Desktop Linux, etc. | | |
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| ▲ | baal80spam 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | If you think Ternus wouldn't do it, you are in for a bad time. | | |
| ▲ | valleyer 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Well, I hope I'm not, but yes, I will be quite disappointed if so. | | |
| ▲ | brandall10 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Apple is a multi-trillion dollar public company. It would be unusual for a leader of such a thing not act in accordance w/ shareholders' best interests, as well to defy likely board guidance. | | |
| ▲ | shye 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Most shareholders may not care beyond the next quarter, but CEO action that led to those results were made couple of years ago at least, and current action will do as much to determine not the next quarter, but one slightly further in the future. Hence Jamie Dimon, for example, making a different decision in a similar matter. As Dimon explained: “[…] we have to be very careful about how anything is perceived, and also how the next DOJ is going to deal with it. So, we’re quite conscious of risks we bear by doing anything that looks like buying favors or anything like that”[1]. --- [1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/business/video/jp-morgan-chas... | |
| ▲ | jmye 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | “Capitulating to the current regime on everything is in shareholder’s best interests” is neither a foregone conclusion nor a statement of fact. It’s economic myopia at best. | | |
| ▲ | brandall10 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Let me be clear - I'm not happy about it. But ignoring such a reality reminds me of that quote comparing Job's best friend to a lawnmower. That said, I'd love to enlightened to how it's myopic, or rather, what course(s) of action you would take, keeping in mind that Apple is a multi-trillion dollar public company. | | |
| ▲ | jmye 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I’m telling you that thinking a->b is myopic. It could be that shareholder value would’ve been higher had Tim Cook told Trump (or Biden, or Trump, or Obama) to go fuck himself. Perhaps the people who spend money on iPhones, specifically, would’ve been more inclined to buy a new iProduct, than they are now that he’s bent the knee. Myopia is thinking “well he did it so it must have been good”. There are myriad other things he could’ve done, that have a strong argument towards higher shareholder value. Edit to add: Think TSLA, if you want a concrete example. If that stock was at all trading on fundamentals (and if they had a remotely capable or competent board) and not Magic Memes, Musk’s hard right pivot was inarguably bad for the brand and shareholder value, even if it made the President temporarily happy. | | |
| ▲ | Nevermark 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Counterfactuals are weak opinion, at best. Given that Apple is doing well, the onus is on someone claiming that Apple would have done better, having a strong argument. Not "could" have done better, because things could obviously have gone better, worse, or anything else, given any substantive or random difference. Could means nothing. (And I say this as someone very disappointed with how Cook handled that.) | | |
| ▲ | pohl 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I’d rather hear from someone suggesting, counterfactually, that they would have done worse had they not capitulated. What’s that argument like? | | |
| ▲ | Nevermark 21 hours ago | parent [-] | | You want motivated reasoning? It’s not clear what you are saying, other than what you want to hear. |
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| ▲ | jmye 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Counterfactuals are weak opinion, at best. Ah, "If you can't definitively and completely prove a negative then you're wrong (but also I'm like, totally not carrying water for those people)" is definitely not a weak opinion, though. That said, maybe you should read the discussion a bit more carefully before jumping in with "OMG PROOOOOOF" or whatever the fuck this was supposed to be? The entire, plain English discussion, revolved around one thing not being the only possible "fact" just because it happened. None of the posts were particularly long, and none used challenging words. | | |
| ▲ | Nevermark 2 days ago | parent [-] | | My point isn’t that anyone’s view is wrong. I can’t make that claim either. I hate what Cook did. I would be happy and open to anyone who can point out how Apple was supposed to handle the actual threat of major tariffs in their components and systems better than he did. But simply asserting a counter factual, a plausible way it might have been better, isn’t that. What would Cook be expected to do with that? But what? Not dismissing that there was a better way. There must be. It’s very worthwhile figuring out, even as a counter factual. That’s how we all learn.l Not judging anyone. My answer is just or even more weak! I have really thought about this too, and come up with nothing so far. (I appreciate and take note that my comment didn’t communicate my point well enough. It’s important to recognize weak reasoning. But that wasn’t meant to discourage, or show a lack of respect for another person’s efforts. I want a better answer too.) |
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| ▲ | brandall10 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Myopia is thinking “well he did it so it must have been good”. You're writing words that I did not say or imply. The point is going against any (current) admin is almost always bad for a publicly traded company. Any public entity is going to have to have extremely good reasons to "fight back", how doing so is good for business. As a CEO of such an entity you're having to answer to many people who want a concrete plan and a belief in your strategy. In the first rodeo, when all this was novel, it was believed such social signaling would pay off. Obviously silicon valley as a whole no longer feels this way. TSLA is an outlier being grounded more on some superior man theory, that Apple did have in the past w/ Jobs, who is no longer there. Religious fervor stuff. It doesn't really apply. Rational moves here, please. > There are myriad other things he could’ve done, that have a strong argument towards higher shareholder value This is what I asked you to expound on. Please state a few. |
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| ▲ | mrexcess 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Wouldn’t Ternus have had a hand in the Apple Silicon backdoor? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43003230 | | | |
| ▲ | dwaite 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | My condolences in advance |
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| ▲ | an0malous 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It's less than the other tech CEOs who seem to evade criticism on HN. Elon literally worked for Trump, accomplished nothing, and ended up just leaking everyone's social security data. Thiel and Palantir are profiting from war and building out the surveillance state. Bezos made a $75M documentary about Melania. Larry Ellison took over TikTok US to squelch any criticism of US and Zionist war atrocities. | | | |
| ▲ | 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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