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I’ve been seeing this idea on the Internet a lot more for months now and I’ve been trying to put my finger on what I think is wrong with it I think I finally fi

I’ve been seeing this idea on the Internet a lot more for months now and I’ve been trying to put my finger on what I think is wrong with it I think I finally figured it out. I work for a corporation, it’s not a massive corporation, when I first started it was a midsize family owned company and we never did work in service to the bottom line at least not solely. First and foremost we were interested in customers and providing value to them. I think that any major corporation or business small large whatever also has that same responsibility and probably also the same drive. Any organization is made up of multiple people and there’s definitely going to be some actors that are completely bottom line driven but you’re going to also have individuals whose purpose is meeting customer needs and providing customer value. I’m not saying Apple is an altruistic corporation or doesn’t have concern for the bottom line, but making such a broad generalization to say that Apple only serves their bottom line perhaps sets you and others up with a pessimistic attitude where the people doing good work are missed. This is mostly a bit of introspection on the thought that I’ve been trying to flesh out for the last few months and it’s not meant as a criticism of your comment in anyway I understand the sentiment of where you’re coming from because I’ve also been in that same place. I think my views are just changing a little bit and I thought I’d take this opportunity to write them down hope you have a great day.

shard 6y ago
syshum's post is definitely cynical, but I can see it being true in the sense that companies are not likely to make moves which lower their share price, even if they think it is ultimately good for the consumer, if they know consumers will think it is a net loss for them. For example, it may be possible to raise the security level of their devices 100 fold, but if it causes their products to cost 10x as much, no consumer will feel it is worth the price, and so the product will not sell and their stock prices will fall, even if it's ultimately in the consumer's interest.
- donny2018 6y ago
  But still, they are more consumer interest oriented than their sole competitor. At least this is a big part of their marketing. Talking share price, Apple could have gone with user data mining and targeted ad business which is very profitable, but they chose not to.
  - shard 6y ago
    Yes, emphasizing their privacy focus as their differentiation is definitely part of Apple's brand identity and marketing strategy. However, Apple is in a different vertical and has a different business model than FB and Google, and may not have the DNA to succeed in businesses such as advertisement.
syshum 6y ago
My claim was not "Every worker at Apple" But Apple the organization, Apple CEO and Board for sure, and probally all of the C-Level are looking at the share price... Every public company would be the same Every Private company would be looking at some other Shareholder value, be it dividends or some other Shareholder ROI metric Many if not most of the employees would be shielded from that in some ways, and often presents itself in frustation over company policies, public statements, or actions because they feel the company should be looking to something other than Shareholder value because many companies present publicly to be doing something other than that, present to their employees as "we are all a family" and other platitudes because if a company came out with the hard reality people would recoil from that as most people do not desire to exist in reality but instead a nice delusion (this is also why we get the politicians we get)
deleted 6y ago
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shard 6y ago

syshum's post is definitely cynical, but I can see it being true in the sense that companies are not likely to make moves which lower their share price, even if they think it is ultimately good for the consumer, if they know consumers will think it is a net loss for them. For example, it may be possible to raise the security level of their devices 100 fold, but if it causes their products to cost 10x as much, no consumer will feel it is worth the price, and so the product will not sell and their stock prices will fall, even if it's ultimately in the consumer's interest.

donny2018 6y ago
But still, they are more consumer interest oriented than their sole competitor. At least this is a big part of their marketing. Talking share price, Apple could have gone with user data mining and targeted ad business which is very profitable, but they chose not to.
- shard 6y ago
  Yes, emphasizing their privacy focus as their differentiation is definitely part of Apple's brand identity and marketing strategy. However, Apple is in a different vertical and has a different business model than FB and Google, and may not have the DNA to succeed in businesses such as advertisement.

syshum 6y ago

My claim was not "Every worker at Apple" But Apple the organization, Apple CEO and Board for sure, and probally all of the C-Level are looking at the share price... Every public company would be the same Every Private company would be looking at some other Shareholder value, be it dividends or some other Shareholder ROI metric Many if not most of the employees would be shielded from that in some ways, and often presents itself in frustation over company policies, public statements, or actions because they feel the company should be looking to something other than Shareholder value because many companies present publicly to be doing something other than that, present to their employees as "we are all a family" and other platitudes because if a company came out with the hard reality people would recoil from that as most people do not desire to exist in reality but instead a nice delusion (this is also why we get the politicians we get)

deleted 6y ago

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