By John Moltz
November 24, 2023 2:00 PM PT
This Week in Apple: That math doesn’t check out
Tim Cook gets put in the cold seat while 13 remains a popular number in Japan. And will Apple get coal in its stocking? If the NLRB has anything to say about it, yes.
A friendly game of softball
In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, Tim Cook appeared on Dua Lipa’s “At Your Service” podcast, forcing many an aging observer of Apple corporate maneuvering to say aloud “Whose what now?”
Cook started out by asserting that everyone at Apple believes 1 plus 1 equals 3 because, uh, something about teamwork. While cute, bad math is not exactly a thing you want to hear from the company making the A-Fib detector in your smartwatch.
It’s an at times interesting interview in which Lipa questions Cook on how Apple measures its carbon output, but it’s not exactly hard-hitting. And that’s fine: not every interview has to be straight out of Marathon Man. Still, it’s not like Cook was sweating.
In a discussion of AI, Cook claimed that iPhones are positively brimming over with the stuff!
“Aluminum? That’s Al!”
That’s an “L”, Tim, not a capital “I”. You can’t trick us!
Lipa then asked the Apple CEO what upcoming technologies other than AI might be transformative in the future. Cook swung mightily at that hanging fastball and sent it flying past the Pee Wee League wall, saying, well, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this little device called the Vision Pro that Apple “launched” in June… but it’s gonna be huge! (“Launched”? Really? OK.)
If you can’t get enough of Apple advertising, you’ll probably love this interview.
Small in Japan
Sometimes it seems the world is upside down.
“iPhone 15 hugely popular in South Korea – while Japanese buyers seek out used iPhone 13 minis”
iPhones popular in South Korea? What’s next? Yankees popular in Boston? Or anywhere outside of New York, really?
Reasons for the increase include carrier incentives and the addition of a popular call recorder feature for iPhones by a major carrier.
Meanwhile, Japan continues to have excellent taste, showing that maybe it’s Apple’s that’s upside down.
Consumers there tend to favor smaller phones…
Oh. Oh. Look at that. An entire market where consumers favor smaller phones. Well, well, well. Who would have thought? God forbid Apple ship something AN ENTIRE MARKET WANTS BUT CAN’T GET. God forbid I GET THE SIZE IPHONE I WANT INSTEAD OF SOME FREAKISH MONSTROSITY.
Ahem.
I’m not bitter. You’re bitter.
(I am actually very bitter about this.)
1 plus 1 actually equals 2
Despite the teamwork lip service, it’s probably a good thing that Apple is not a family because management and labor sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday would have been awk-ward.
“Apple denied unionized workers better benefits, NLRB claims”
Apple management: “Can I get the cranberry sauce?”
Apple labor: “Oh, maybe I’ll get that for you when you get me the benefits I’m owed.”
Apple management: “MOMMMMMMM!”
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims Apple denied a set of new benefits to unionized employees at its Towson, Maryland store, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday.
This comes after Apple has already been found guilty by the NLRB on a number of other complaints, such as prohibiting workers from discussing their wages and interrogating and making coercive statements to employees.
Apple makes a lot of money. If it treated workers fairly, it would still make a lot of money. But it clearly doesn’t want to do that. When one of its biggest competitors has committed itself to a healthier relationship with its workers and is still doing just fine, you have to wonder what the problem is.
[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]