Email Response “Why Do You Hate Apple So Much?”

I didn’t respond to the email, I figure many others who read my blog may be asking the same thing so why not blog about it.

First, I don’t HATE Apple, but I do have what I believe are good reasons to not like them very much. Steve Jobs once said “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas” – Steve Jobs 1996. He also said "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this" — Steve Jobs, 2011. Funny that if Xerox had a few patents on what Apple stole Apple likely wouldn’t even be a company today.

His statements say everything, whenever he complained about other companies copying Apple ideas I laughed, karma is like that. They nearly died as a company and because of Microsoft’s money in 2007 and Steve Jobs run over anybody attitude they climbed up out of the hole and are now the wealthiest company in the world. Their stock is around $700.00, is it worth this kind of money, I don’t think so but they have a huge fanboy/fangirl base that literally will by something just because it has the Apple on it. If the device has issues they will defend Apple and place blame elsewhere.

Apple has always been shameless in who they will sue if a company happens to do something similar to an Apple product. This isn’t the only reason why I dislike Apple, they moved production out of this country to a country known for crimes against its own people (China), crimes that continue today and they did it for one reason, to dominate any market they get into and to make as huge a profit on it as possible. I don’t fault them for trying to make a profit, I fault them for not caring who gets hurt while doing so.

They couldn’t dominate the computer market, the best they have ever done is around 7% market share so they did the smart thing back when they only had 3.5% market share, they entered other markets. Hey, I believe in the fair market and I’m a capitalist so I have no problem when a company is honest in its dealings and making a good profit, this isn’t how Apple conducts itself however. Side note, ask India, China and Africa how the computer garbage dumps are doing, throw in Dell and others here as well. Not only do we want other countries to drill for our oil so we don’t make a mess here, we want them to take our garbage as well. Recycled a Apple or Dell computer, ever wondered where they ended up?

The reasons why computer junk ends up in these places is because of unfair trade agreements between these countries. Give this some thought, China ships us a huge volume of well, everything, what goes back to China in these huge ships filled with essentially empty containers? Since we don’t produce much for these countries because of these horrible trade agreements it’s very cheap to ship garbage (plus recycled computer hardware) there since they don’t have the same kind of laws we do. Check out Apples web page for how green and wonderful they are, it makes me sick knowing the truth of it and I WILL get flak from people claiming I’m wrong. This is fine, continue buying from them and be happy, it’s your choice.

What is Apple good at? Apple wraps average electronics in pretty wrappers, charges more than any other company does for a similar device and is pretty insistent that their devices are near infallible. I have been working on their products since they came out over 30 years ago, they are far from infallible. When their OS gets attacked by a virus, like a true politician they claim that’s impossible and ignore the problem until it gets so blown up in the press they have to acknowledge it and handle it.

The press screams for a few days then everybody is in love with Apple again shortly after. Foxconn employees commit suicide and Apple “schedules a surprise visit” to alleviate public pressure and show everybody how on top of the situation they are. Expose’s are done showing conditions in these Foxconn “factory cities” and how much press does that get? Barely a mention and the story quickly fades. 2000 people get into a fight and it makes the news, how much press was there for the reason this brawl started in the first place? Crickets can be heard, oh you can find stories, but the mainstream press is finished with it.

I know Apple isn’t alone in this but I don’t understand how a company can sell products here for huge gains knowing they are hurting people. There are issues with the iPhone 5, quality issues, anybody shocked to hear that considering what's going on in the factories making them? I don’t fault the production line people for this, they are treated like dirt in a country that doesn’t value human life. The Chinese economy is booming because they don’t have to face the same kind of regulations as the US does and they pay people a pittance, the only people who matter in China are the elites, the rest can be stepped on and cast aside.

So, these are the reasons I dislike Apple, I have rid myself of all of their products save two, one of which is on eBay right now. The other, an iPad my boss bought me for work. Other than the iPad I am free of that company (in 4 days actually) and it feels good. When I see in the news what’s going on at Apple/Foxconn factories I don’t feel like I am contributing to it anymore.

I can’t wait for the day China is called upon to account for it’s crimes against it’s own people, but the US won’t be the one to do it, China buys our debt for a reason, but that’s for another blog. A company as big as Apple is now, can you imagine the fall? Without Steve Jobs there, it will be EPIC. I actually feel the same is going to happen to Microsoft, without Bill Gates in control the fall will be pretty epic there as well.

That’s all, don’t agree, that’s fine, we agree to dis-agree…