I ’m going to wax a small philosophical for this week ’s chromatography column , which also happens to be my last .
Stay anserine debuted a tenner ago , almost to the day , but I ’ve been save regularly for Macworld for nearly 20 years . When I first start out , we were all activated about what the in vogue in engineering science – Intel - powered Macs – would mean for Apple ’s long - condition prognosis for endurance . Two 10 later , nobody ever even whisper that Apple is doomed anymore , because to intimate it would tag you as somebody divorce from reality .
It ’s difficult to overstate just how unlike the Apple of today is from the Apple of 2015 or 2006 . In get a retrospective facial expression at Apple , we most often see ourselves equate the enormously successful giant that Apple now is to the company ’s low-water mark in the mid-90s , when it was just steps from going out of business . But the trueness is that even in just the last decade or two , the company has reached summit that seemed antecedently unrealizable .
Apple strives to be a virtuous company, but all companies have the end goal of making money.
And somewhere along the way , I conceive the relationship of the fellowship to its customers – and frailty versa – vary as well . It ’s something that I ’ve find myself thinking aboutmore and more in late old age . But is it me that ’s changed , or is it Apple ? I think probably a small of both .
As Apple start becoming more and more successful , I ’ve become more and more sceptical that one should ever really consider oneself a “ fan ” of acompany .
Fan fare
Over the years , those in the Apple community have long been called everything from the liturgical “ Apple close ” to the insipid “ iSheep ” , dating back to the days when the triumph wiseness was that to hitch your lot to this weird ship’s company must imply a cult - corresponding devotion . The simple truth was that most customers were simply sports fan of the products themselves : they liked the way they worked and take care .
That has n’t changed for me : I stay to be a buff of Apple ’s product . But as Apple started becoming more and more successful , I ’ve become increasingly sceptical that one should ever really weigh oneself a “ rooter ” of acompany .
A rooter is the kind of term we usually reserve for artistic or athletic pursuits . If I ’m a buff of a sports team , I ’m rooting for that team to win , and that is naturally coordinate with the squad ’s own primary goals . But if I ’m a devotee of a company , am I take root for it to notch another zero on its balance sheet ? For no matter how much the company may pride itself on its merchandise , its primary goal is for sure to make more money .
Apple strives to be a virtuous company, but all companies have the end goal of making money.
Being a fan of Apple as a company think of needs contend with the realism of business organization itself . Apple is a moneymaking machine in a order build for and around moneymaking machine , and it is in some shipway itself trapped in that system . Sometimes that intend stop product lines that do n’t deal , and sometimes it means deflect to the whims of authoritarian ( or would - be authoritarian ) regimes . Sometimes it even meanspaying a million dollarsto insulate yourself from government policy , with the agreement that it ’s just how business work on .
Apple strive to be a virginal company , but all companies have the end finish of making money .
orchard apple tree
Even when a company does verge into doing good works , whether it’senvironmental sustainabilityorracial fairness and jurist , those move must be couched as part and parcel of the caller ’s economic success . Because tonotdo so would get to the company to accusal of it failing to fulfill the prime directive of any in public - swop corp : render value to its shareholders .
Billions and billions served
Frankly , it ’s difficult for a person to really comprehend Apple ’s present - daytime value . To give just one example , Apple recently establish itself on the receiving end of afine from the European Unionto the tune of $ 570 million . That sound like a lot , to you or me , because it would be , to you or me . But in its most recent twenty-five percent , Apple generated that much taxation in a day – more than twice over , in fact . The European Commission could levy that fine several multiplication over and hardly make a dent in Apple ’s bottom line . The Apple of 2025 is , in a very real sense , too big to go .
Some view these fines as unfairly place Apple , arguing it ’s an attempt to bring down a uniquely successful American company to upgrade competitor from elsewhere in the worldly concern .
Reasonable multitude might take issue on that thesis , but it is the unbridled ebullience for it that I find distasteful . Because , merely put , Apple does not need your help . It does n’t require your defensive structure or your exuberance . It certainly does not need your support , any more than your buying of its products – and even that it can do without , since you ’re just one person .
Corporations , court determination to the contrary , arenotpeople . No mortal will live as long as Apple will , because it now has so much money that there is no practical agency for it to run out . Tim Cook could go on a wild shopping spree and grease one’s palms Luxembourg , and it would just be a badquarterfor the company .
None of this is intend to take aside from the individual at Apple , many of whom are devoted to doing dependable work . But those people are , by and big , not any more in control of the direction the company takes than the average citizen is of their country ’s policy .
But if Apple really does believe in changing the world , as it so often claims , the chance is there . As one of the most powerful companies in the world ( if not the most powerful ) , the power to shoot the system is in its hand . It could decide , in the words of its most indelible catchword , to think different . Some might contend that the company ’s Brobdingnagian size of it and value make it unwilling or ineffectual to take chances , but those very same calibre arguably have in mind it ’s maybe theonlyone that can .
See you, space cowboy
So that ’s it . After more than 400 column , I’mturning off the lightsfor remain Foolish . It may not be the last sentence you see my byline over here , but if you want to keep up with my tech reflection on the habitue , you ’ll still find me writing over atSix Colorsand podcast atClockwiseandThe Rebound , and of course of study , you may alwaysbuy my leger . Thanks for reading for all these years , and if I may be bold enough to depart with any advice – whether for you , or for Apple itself – it would bethe very Steve Jobs adagefrom which I draw this column ’s name : “ abide hungry , stay goosy . ”
