While The Frying Pan has a nice take on the underlying evil of Apple's slave labor pool, The Complainer's overly emotional screed applauds The New York Times' GUTS in finally taking Apple to task on the company's evil misuse of its workers, the environment, and its American marketplace, while simultaneously castigating Apple for betraying their exceptionally loyal consumer base.
...we are SICKENED that a company long associated with innovation, creativity, and a progressive sociopolitical aura is, underneath its sleek exterior, behaving like a venal corporate zombie, no less environmentally and socially destructive as Koch Industries, ExxonMobile, BP, and other well-known corporate denizens.
Here, here...
Apple users deserve better. Apple's strong reputation for innovation, style, quality, and execution is peerless, providing Apple with one of the most intensely loyal customer bases in the world. Indeed, Apple's customers have demonstrated for decades a deep-seated willingness to pay for a big premium for innovation, ease-of-use, and quality. Thus, with typically the most expensive offerings in each product category, Apple's profit consistently ranks among the world's highest in ANY business sector.
There is simply NO REASON that Apple cannot "Think Different" and transform itself into an exemplar of social, environmental, and geopolitical responsibility.
A call to action? "BOYCOTT, ANYONE?"
....if Apple continues to allow its subcontractors to expose those who build Apple's iPods, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs to brutal, abusive, unsafe working conditions, it Apple risks losing a hard-fought reputation as the digital platform of choice for the world's growing "creative class."
It's not too late. But, Apple needs to become aggressively proactive in protecting the health, safety, and well-being of its workers—globally. To survive, Apple must become the global leader, the exemplar of good corporate citizenry, from Cupertino to Shenzhen. For Apple, it's time to "Think different." It's time to make Apple's manufacturing process as inspiring as its products. And, it's time to bring more of it's manufacturing work back home. It's time to stop gutting America's manufacturing base, and its families, in exchange for child labor, environmental degradation, and abusive workplaces.
THINK ABOUT THE RAMIFICATIONS OF A GLOBAL BOYCOTT...
With revenue rising to a record $13.03 BILLION in net profits on $46.33 BILLION in revenue for the final quarter of 2011—and a valuation of $426 billion—Apple can certainly afford to behave responsibly.
With Android (more about Google's "EVIL" new privacy policy later) poised to suck the air out of Apple's iPhone business, a BOYCOTT is something Apple cannot afford—financially, or viscerally.....
"Steve, if you're not rolling over, yet... You will be soon.... Kiss your successor in his ear and whisper: "This time, just this one time, the customers might be right..."
Love, The Complainer