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Uh-Oh: Apple Suppliers Violating Company’s Conduct Codes

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:50:07 -0600

Like any large corporation with a lot of wheels in motion all over the world, Apple Inc. spends a considerable amount of time, energy and hard-earned dollars making sure its manufacturing partners are enforcing their strict codes of conduct. But a recent report finds that the company may have a long way to go.

According to 9to5Mac.com, factory workers in consumer electronics manufacturing overseas already have a tough go of it when compared to their U.S. counterparts. Most of them make less than a dollar an hour in wages, can be let go without any reason (or even a warning), work in sweatshop-like conditions and have few rights to challenge their conditions.

As such, Apple and other high-profile tech companies devote a lot of time to making sure their contracted suppliers follow established codes of conduct, regularly conducting audits of those factories to catch abuse.

“Our audits are done across all our suppliers,” explains Apple spokesperson Jill Tan. “It’s a pretty rigorous process, and we take corrective actions as and when required. We audit aggressively, and post all results on our website.”

But according to Apple’s supplier responsibility update in February, 2009, the company’s own findings indicate that nearly 60% of the suppliers are actually violating their code of conduct, both on work hours and days off.

Among the violations are underpayment for overtime and deducting salary as punishment, but Apple also discovered that some factories were falsifying records, employing underage workers and hiring laborers who had paid “recruitment fees” exceeding the legal limit.

The update doesn’t establish which steps are being taken to rectify the current situation, but a five-part special report coming from GlobalPost, including interviews with workers in Taiwan, the Phillippines and southern China, is expected to shed more light on the situation soon enough. Stay tuned.

Apple Expected to Surpass Microsoft as Tech Giant

Liam Widman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:20:52 -0600

CNBC says that Apple is in Microsoft's rearview mirror, but could soon pull ahead of the software giant. While Apple is currently valued at $180 billion, and Microsoft at $250 billion, Apple's business is growing quickly while Microsoft is not.

“The biggest overriding reason why the company still has room to run is that its business is growing,” said Erick Maronak, chief investment officer for the Victory Large Cap Growth Fund to CNBC. “The day they introduce the tablet, that’s going to drive a lot of earnings.” Maronak said he would "not be surprised to see Apple’s market cap approach Microsoft’s in the next two years, though he also likes the software company’s growth prospects.”

Apple already has a market capitalization to Google, who is another major rival of Microsoft. Apple has already doubled annual revenues to $36.5 billion since 2005, while Microsoft has fallen 34% in the same time period.

Apple: We Did Not Reject Google Voice For iPhone -- Oh SNAP!

Cory Bohon — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:43:03 -0500

In another turn of events regarding the Google Voice rejection story, Apple is sticking to its story about not rejecting Google Voice for iPhone. According to The Business Insider, an Apple representative stated, "We do not agree with all of the statements made by Google in their FCC letter. Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application and we continue to discuss it with Google.”

Earlier today Google dropped the confidentiality of their statement to the FCC about the rejection of their application from Apple's App Store.

Google Says Apple Did Reject GVoice App, Pulls Confidentiality Statement

Cory Bohon — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:51:07 -0500

Today Google dropped the confidentiality request of their FCC filing about the Google Voice app rejection, making the statement fully accessible online. According to the Google Public Policy blog, they requested that certain parts of the filing be redacted due to "sensitive commercial conversations between the two companies."

The company goes on to state its reasoning for making the documents public, "several individuals and organizations submitted Freedom of Information Act requests with the FCC seeking access to this information. While we could have asked the FCC to oppose those requests, in light of Apple's decision to make its own letter fully public and in the interest of transparency, we decided to drop our request for confidentiality," says Richard Whitt who posted the article.

The most interesting item in the released documents is the statement below:

"On July 7, Mr. Eustace [Senior VP of Engineering and Research at Google] and Mr. Schiller spoke over the phone. It was during this call that Mr. Schiller informed Mr. Eustace that Apple was rejecting the Google Voice application for the reasons described," the document states on page 4.

The document goes on to say that, "Apple's representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone. The Apple representatives indicated that the company did not want applications that could potentially replace such functionality."

You can read the full letter in which Google talks about both the Google Voice and Google Latitude apps on the FCC site (PDF link).

Google Public Policy Blog via Gizmodo

Apple Gives More Details On iPhone Anti-Phishing Feature

Cory Bohon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:32:41 -0500

With the advent of iPhone OS 3.1, Apple gave mobile Safari the ability to alert you of malicious phishing websites, but you're not protected until you sync your database. According to The Loop, Apple responded to questions about this feature and how to update the anti-phishing database to keep yourself protected.

According to Apple, the database is not updated over the air, "... in order to protect battery life and ensure there aren’t any additional data fees."

So how do we get these magical updates, Apple? "After updating to iPhone OS 3.1 the user should launch Safari, connect to a Wi-Fi network and charge their iPhone with the screen off. For most users this process should happen automatically when they charge their phone,” said Bill Evans, an Apple spokesperson.

This sounds easy enough, but we just can't understand why these updates cannot simply be pushed out to the device at regular intervals with permission from the user. After all, we do have "unlimited data," right?

More Sources Point to Apple Event on September 9

Christine Chan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:29:17 -0500

Mark September 9 on your calendars, because a second super-secret souce pegs this as the day Apple decided on for the annual iPod/iTunes event, after teetering between September 8 and 9 for quite some time.

The biggest expectation for this year will be the iPod touch and iPod nano, both of which are allegedly getting cameras, which will make both devices dual-purpose point-and-shoot cameras for the first time ever. Sources at AppleInsider are also claiming that the camera is just going to be one piece of this year's iPod story.

We are also expecting the announcement of iTunes 9, which has been rumored to integrate social networking services for the first time. There were also rumors of Blu-ray support and iPhone/iPod touch app management in this new version, but no confirmation until the event.

What to NOT expect according to numerous sources, is any sort of Apple Tablet announcement, since this product is likely to not make any appearance until the first quarter of 2010.

The event has no set place yet, though from past events, it is highly possible that San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center may hold the event, or even the Moscone West. Analysts and members of the media will be getting their invitations with full details of the event about a week prior.

John Paczkowski on the D | All Things Digital blog was the first to report of the September 9 date.

Apple Doing More with the TV?

Christine Chan — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:55:18 -0500

The Apple TV may not be as popular as other Apple products, but that doesn't mean that it's going away anytime soon. One analyst speculates that the Apple TV may be getting an update with new features, such as DVR capabilities and a subscription service for TV shows.

It seems that a Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst by the name of Gene Munster seems to have said in a note to clients that Apple does plan on putting one of the aforementioned features in the next major revision of the Apple TV. According to Munster, this update may be coming up within the next couple of months.

With ad-based Internet streaming services like Hulu and subscriptions from Netflix doing well, Apple is losing market share. This is why Munster believes that Apple will begin offering more video offerings, and possibly do to it what they did to the music industry.

According to Munster, the 'subscription service' for TV shows, won't be like that of the Season Pass that is already available in iTunes. This will be more like paying a $30-$40 monthly fee for access to a selection of TV shows within iTunes.

“Such a product would effectively replace a consumer’s monthly cable bill (~$85/month) and offer access to current and older episodes of select shows on select channels,” said Munster.

Also with this speculation is the belief that the company will build an Apple connected television that will contain DVR and built-in home media functionality. Munster believes this product to be expected in 2011.

via The Loop

Apple Cutting Into Handheld Game Market

Christine Chan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:41:04 -0500

With the continually growing App Store, which is filled with tons of games, how does Apple's iPhone and iPod touch fare in the world of handheld gaming against the kings, Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP? The answer: very well.

Both Nintendo and Sony have sold 70 and 35 million units, respectively, and both have their dedicated gamers that yearn for the high-quality franchises and system exclusives. But these apparently still aren't enough to keep Apple away from cutting into the market. Micheal Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Morgan Securities and a top game industry analyst, says it's a "fait accompli."

According to Pachter, "iPod touch game sales are already cutting into the handheld market, particularly at the low-end," he wrote to a writer at The Apple Blog. “The iPod touch’s market share will continue to grow, I suppose to around 10 percent to 15 percent of all handheld game sales."

The iPod touch market share will continue to grow to about 10 to 15 percent of all the handheld game sales, according to Pachter. He sees the iPod touch as much more of a competitor in the handheld market than the iPhone since prices for the device will drop and parents will see them as viable substitutes for a DS or PSP. He doesn't think the iPhone will grow like the iPod touch in the gaming market though, since it requires an expensive data plan, which most parents are hesitant to pay for a child younger than 18.

The main challenge for the iPod touch gaming market though, is the pricing for games. “The sticking point is whether we’ll see these games offered at $9.99 or at $29.99. If at the lower price, the developers/publishers would take a profit hit; if at the higher price, the popularity of the iPod touch as a gaming device will suffer," claims Pachter. It should be noted that currently top-selling games in the App Store, even from the major publishers, sell for even under $10.

Still, Nintendo and Sony have the better games and exclusive first-party titles that we will most likely never see in the App Store. This seems to be the only advantage they have over Apple in the portable gaming market, but only time will tell if that will change.