Cook discusses China investment, consumer rights, more with market regulator in Beijing

Cook is above the political level and refuses to take side in meaningless geopolitical tussle. His job is to do the best for the global company, not as a weapon of the present US government as for Google.

Disclosure: Fanboy, Long AAPL. Think that making Tim Cook CEO of Apple may be Steve Jobs most brilliant move - And that says a lot.

Does Apple give up anything to China? So far I don't see it. Happy to hear counter argument, as facts not opinions. Apple and China have great synergy. Apple gets the best manufacturers on the planet so that they can launch annual new iPhones at unprecedented quality and unit volume. Only Apple and China can do this. And of course China gets great ROI on their investments in people and manufacturing technology. But Apple sources components from all over the world, not just China. 

More importantly, the real value of Apple's devices is the software. Make no mistake, Apple is a software company, not a hardware company. They design the chips. They don't make them. They design the devices. They don't assemble them. Design is SW. All the SW from FW to xxxKits to the Apps developed by over a million App developers to the music and video and magazines and games etc. are all SW. Even broadcasting a football game is SW, despite big guys giving each other concussions. 

When we buy and iPhone, 60% of the cost is the software and it's worth every penny. The actual assembly and the parts made in China are around 10% (I made up these statistics, but who cares? They're close enough.)

And about HK? Yes it is bad. China is a bad actor. They steal trade and military secrets. They have unfair trade practices and manipulate their currency. The persecution of the Uigyur is worse than that is going on in HK, but our biases devalue the persecution of muslims. No one mentions what's going on in Myanmar.

Back to the main topic. Globalization is not stopping. Nor is capitalism. Nor is the digital transformation and the impact of AI. There are many negative aspects of all these. I'd rather have Tim Cook figuring this out than any one else. 

fred stein said:

Disclosure: Fanboy, Long AAPL. Think that making Tim Cook CEO of Apple may be Steve Jobs most brilliant move - And that says a lot.

Does Apple give up anything to China? So far I don't see it. Happy to hear counter argument, as facts not opinions. Apple and China have great synergy. Apple gets the best manufacturers on the planet so that they can launch annual new iPhones at unprecedented quality and unit volume. Only Apple and China can do this. And of course China gets great ROI on their investments in people and manufacturing technology. But Apple sources components from all over the world, not just China. 

More importantly, the real value of Apple's devices is the software. Make no mistake, Apple is a software company, not a hardware company. They design the chips. They don't make them. They design the devices. They don't assemble them. Design is SW. All the SW from FW to xxxKits to the Apps developed by over a million App developers to the music and video and magazines and games etc. are all SW. Even broadcasting a football game is SW, despite big guys giving each other concussions. 

When we buy and iPhone, 60% of the cost is the software and it's worth every penny. The actual assembly and the parts made in China are around 10% (I made up these statistics, but who cares? They're close enough.)

And about HK? Yes it is bad. China is a bad actor. They steal trade and military secrets. They have unfair trade practices and manipulate their currency. The persecution of the Uigyur is worse than that is going on in HK, but our biases devalue the persecution of muslims. No one mentions what's going on in Myanmar.

Back to the main topic. Globalization is not stopping. Nor is capitalism. Nor is the digital transformation and the impact of AI. There are many negative aspects of all these. I'd rather have Tim Cook figuring this out than any one else. 

I’ll take it a step farther.  The more money Apple brings in, the more positive impact it can have on the environment and social goals.  We should first concede that if Apple stopped producing smartphones today, there would still be about the same number sold over the next year versus if Apple stays in the game.  And what is true of the entire world market is trie for any portion of it, like the Chinese market.  If Apple pulled out other makers would fill the gap.  But I’d rather have Apple engaged there, pushing on suppliers to be more environmentally positive, pushing as much as possible on other issues and pulling in a big chunk of the money spent there on smartphones and tablets and PCs and watches and software.  Because I believe that money going into Apple’s coffers will ultimately have a better effect on the world than in someone else’s hands.  That’s a perspective most don’t take into account when they look at the picture. It takes stepping back quite a distance to evaluate a business the size of Apple.  

Ciprol said:

Cook is above the political level and refuses to take side in meaningless geopolitical tussle. His job is to do the best for the global company, not as a weapon of the present US government as for Google.

Valuing how people are treated isn’t “politics”; it’s baseline humanity…

When workers died at the factories making Apple products everyone was outraged, saying that Apple couldn’t be all about profit.

Now people are dying, and severely mistreated, for other reasons; and Apple is once again playing a part.

I expect people to once again value more than just profits. 

svanstrom said:

Now people are dying, and severely mistreated, for other reasons; and Apple is once again playing a part.

I expect people to once again value more than just profits. 

What part is Apple playing in the mistreatment of these people?

And what is Apple supposed to do about it?
What will e.g. pulling out of China accomplish?