Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. | |
|---|---|
 Logo of Apple Inc. since 1998 | |
| Founded |
Apple Computer Company 1 April 1976 |
| Founder |
Steve Wozniak Steve Jobs |
| Industry | Computing, consumer goods |
| Headquarters | 1 Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California, United States |
| Key people | Tim Cook (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 164,000 (2022)[1] |
| Revenue | $394.328B (2022) |
Apple Inc. is an imperialist mega-corporation specialized in luxury computer technology and consumer goods based in the United States. Founded in 1976, Apple is one of the entities which constitutes the "big tech" corporate oligopoly. As of 2023, Apple products consume a considerable market share in Western countries.[2]
Apple commits labor abuses, privacy violations, and anti-consumer practices. Apple products are often manufactured in inhumane and oppressive conditions with meager wages.[3][4] Apple also regularly collaborates in mass-surveillance efforts with the Chinese and United States governments,[5][6] which is aided by the mega-corporation's proprietary operating systems and software.[7]
Practices
Privacy violations
Users of Apple's proprietary operating systems (mainly macOS and iOS) have their personal data and routine computer usage statistics sent to Apple's servers regularly.[7] For example, Apple collects the IP address and location associated with users' computers,[8] the exact applications installed and opened by users,[9] technical information on users' devices,[10] along with other personal data such as financial and health information.[10] Such sensitive data is, at least since the release of macOS Big Sur, impossible to fully block and is transmitted in plain-text.[9]
Apple's operating systems contain multiple backdoors within them. Apple also collaborates in the US government's PRISM surveillance program.
Planned obsolescence
Apple's practices represent a text-book example of planned obsolescence, particularly in recent times. Apple purposefully designs its products in a way which is hostile to the user, with the batteries contained in their mobile devices (such as iPhones) being made deliberately irreplaceable as well.[11] In doing this, Apple forces its mobile users to either purchase a new, expensive device or turn their faulty device in to an Apple-approved repair center for a tedious, expensive week-long process to have the battery replaced, during which Apple erases the device's memory.[12]
Commercial locations
Headquarters
More and more of the world's wealth is being captured by the giant multinational corporations. This continues to be true even while the long-developing world capitalist overproduction crisis intensifies, which means that many big corporations are awash in huge cash hoards that they do not know what to do with. This has led a number of them into a trend of creating enormously wasteful monuments to themselves, on a par with the giant pyramids of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. The picture at the right is of the new enormously expensive Apple Corporation headquarters now under construction in Silicon Valley (California), which is in the shape of a giant space ship.
See also
External links
- Reasons not to use Apple
- Dear Apple: your services are no longer required
- Does Apple REALLY care about your privacy? on YouTube
References
- ↑ Apple: Number of Employees 2010-2023 | AAPL Macrotrends
- ↑ Apple's PC unit shipment share in the United States from 2013 to 2023, by quarter Statista
- ↑ Sweatshops Are Good For Apple and Foxconn, But Not For Workers by Yi Yi Debby (31 May 2012) Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour
- ↑ Mehul Reuben Das (April 14, 2023). Apple accused of using child labour to mine cobalt, promises to switch to 100% recycled cobalt by 2025. Firstpost
- ↑ Why Was Apple Late To the PRISM Party? by Alexia Tsotsis (18 June 2013) TechCrunch
- ↑ China's Guizhou province to oversee Apple's data project (14 August 2017) Reuters
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Apple's Operating Systems Are Malware gnu.org
- ↑ Apple Explains Why It Grabs Data From Mac Computers Amid Privacy Concerns by Michael Kan (16 November 2020) pcmag.com
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 macOS Big Sur has its own telemetry privacy nightmare by Surur (20 November 2020) MSpoweruser
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Apple Privacy Policy Apple
- ↑ "Opinion: Planned obsolescence shatters the myth of capitalist innovation!" (April 17, 2024) The Red Phoenix
- ↑ Apple’s ‘Innovation’ Turns Planned Obsolescence Into Planned Failure by Kyle Wiens (20 January 2011) www.ifixit.com