Apple published the financial results for the latest quarter, and it’s been stellar once again, best non-holiday quarter in company history. “Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 27, 2010. The Company posted revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion, or $1.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.”
My portfolio agrees.
With the iPad, iPhone, iPods and iMac being more popular than ever, it’s becoming clear that people are willing to cough up the huge premium on Apple products.
However, as Apple have been shown to use child labour in their plants[1], their products are cheaper to produce than most.
Apple: Cutting corners for cheap products, and we pass on the savings… no wait, we mark it up.
Why anybody would buy from a company with such a draconian and restrictive system, such inherent disdain for its users and developers, and the desire for profit ruling supreme is beyond me.
[1]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-us…
Actually, you are only hearing about the child labour ( a 15 and 17 year old ) because Apple did the audit themselves. People should applaud that, not criticize it.
Every company should be required to audit suppliers in this manner because if you think components of Dell, HP or Lenovo hardware are not made in plants with poor standards your kidding yourself.
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And let’s not forget our friends at Microsoft and their http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266643/Microsofts-Chinese-… supplier work practices.
So a 15 year old is a child now? Since when? In most free countries 15 year olds can start apprenticeships and hold down full time jobs. In some countries they can be married and hold driver’s licences. My son left school at 16 and is now (at 19) a qualified chef – he would have left at 15 if there’d been an apprenticeship available for him.
Treating adolescents as kids is one of the major issues we have in the world today. It takes away any responsibility for their actions and retards their maturity. In many cultures they’re considered full adult members of the community by time they’re 13 or 14. Interesting that those cultures don’t have the teen pregnancy, drug abuse, prostitution etc rates that many so-called “civilised” (western) cultures do.
And come on, quoting an article from the Telegraph!? Are you kidding me?
Also what some consider “disdain for its users and developers” others see as a corporation doing what they believe gives them the best competitive advantage in the market place. It depends if you want to see Apple as evil or just as a corporation doing what corporations do. And obviously these results show they’re doing it better than most at this point in time.
Like someone has already posted here, I believe Apple themselves found this out by auditing what was going on.
As for only 15+ yo’s, who really knows, I’m sure there are children (much younger than 15) that have worked at Apple plants. I’d be very surprised if that wasn’t the case.
Having said that, lets hope all the other computer companies do audits too, I’m sure you will find the same. It’s very common in the fashion industry, and sadly will be the same in this one. It’s good to see Apple is trying to actually do something about it. With their margins, I guess they can. I think the rest of the PC industry will struggle as they have much lower margins…
Lets wait and see..
Oh, am I applauding Apple, no, not really. Lets wait to the full story comes out…
And I’m not really condemning the other companies either, unless they (and Apple) knowingly allowed this. I think it would be very hard to have a plant in some countries and this not happen. It wasn’t that long ago that child labor was the norm in western countries, as our countries grew richer, we had the luxury to stop it.