I’m not sure what this represents or when it is from. In market share, Apple has remained within top 3 market share in the US since at least 2018. In the world, Apple is 3rd in market share with Samsung at #1. In customer satisfaction indexes- iPhones continue to rank #1 for some years in a row.
When it comes to overall sale of mobile communications devices, including enterprise clients- Apple does trail behind makers like Motorola. Wether you are flying on a plane, at Target, Home Depot, ordering from Amazon, getting a package from UPS, riding a ski lift where passes are scanned, etc. - a “Motorola/Symbol/Zebra” scanner or rugged mobile is likely involved. Around the world, police, fire, and other emergency services will commonly be found using Motorola 2 way communications portable devices. So if we are talking about non consumer market- Apple may we’ll be last- but I’ve never heard or seen them really congratulate themselves excessively on their enterprise penetration of the market.
Due to its status- Huawei isn’t publicly traded or required to submit filings, so we don’t actually have a way to compare things like stock prices etc- so that can’t be it. Maybe this is some country specific ranking? I dunnoh.
Yes. Not that Huawei or moat any other company doesn’t. They’re bad- but certainly by far not the “worst.”
Almost no single person or entity is capable of accumulating and keeping wealth and power in excess of what the “average” is unless there are questionable practices afoot. That’s a plain reality we ignore for convenience. It makes people feel bad to realize we are the problem.
Another post today shows a seal begging for help with fishing nets while humans quibble over plastic straws. Plastics straws are an easy thing to make people feel good about “helping” whereas fishing nets and the fishing industry are more complex, and more so that we have enough food to feed people without resorting to destructive practices- but it isn’t as profitable and it requires people be less wasteful and indulgent.
Or to put it simply: most of the world runs on tiny electronics and cheap consumer goods that are made in the same places apples are, sourced from the same sources. And it’s all dirty. People obsess over blood diamonds but don’t consider that the power sources for their electronics are mined by child slaves. Android, Apple, the $5 laser pointer you bought on amazon, and your electric car. So while Apple engages in questionable practices they are hardly the worst, the only, or the originators of such things. It’s like saying “don’t support Stalin- he’s a murderer. Support Pol Pot!” Well.... no.
as i said, Apple has questionable business practices, building in flaws, redundancies, doing deals so only ipads in schools, putting those out of business that fix their phones, copying ideas and then tradmarking them.
Your statement isn’t false. Apple as questionable business practices. But the statement, and this meme- and the two together, omit the questionable practices of others and imply Apple is a sole perpetrator.
As stated earlier- which of those flaws are exclusively apples, and what metric do you use to determine their practices being excessive in these areas to other manufacturers? Could it be that you are only aware of apples practices and not others in their segment, or that you are (or choose to be) more aware of their activities which makes them seem excessive to you?
Planned obsolescence is not solely Apple- nor did they invent it, or bring it to the mainstream. Cars, home theater, it’s a long list of industries that use some for of planned obsolescence. That’s been a widely used tactic for almost a century- when manufacturers figured out that building products that lasted forever and never needed replaced wasn’t good business, but could put them out of business.
Built in fakes are also a dicey one. What is a “built in flaw” and what is a compromise in design decision? Most modern cars have plastic cooling system parts requiring regular replacement of things that decades ago basically never went bad. That surely increased the sales of parts and service for vehicle makers, and helped get old units off the road when the cost of repairs wasn’t something most owners of even used cars would shoulder vs the value of the car vs buying another new or newer used unit. But it also is a cost decision on price and weight and many factors.
But let’s say for the sake of argument that Apple releases a product with a flaw, or a lack of a coveted feature- intentionally to sell you the already designed solution later? Is that better or worse than other companies that release software and hardware with day one flaws they DIDNT plan but merely didn’t want to spend time and money testing for- allowing the end user to be their QA and find the bugs, after paying full price for what was supposed to be a working unit- and then weeks or even months pass while they try and find a solution to deliver the thing you thought you’d bought?
When it comes to Pattent fuckery and idea theft- TD tech industry is rife with it. The biggest tech giants were all founded on it, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, EBay/PayPal... etc. etc.
And as for their draconian ways- Apples iron fist doesn’t sit well with me philosophically. BUT- it’s inherent to their ecosystem. They are not open source. They do not ever pretend to be or claim to be or lead anyone to believe they are. Their brand is built on stability, predictability, and simplicity with ease of integration. Compatibility. To keep this- they must keep very strong standards to their “eco system.”
I’ve worked with Android on an enterprise level. That’s to say- oversaw the operation of massive companies using android devices for business at an international scale. The things we could do with Android- we could not do with Apple. Some we could do at much greater cost and complexity- but many things we NEEDED were effectively not possible. The trade off was that these devices aren’t stable. One bad google push we have little or no control of, poof. You’ve got millions of dollars burning while it is broken. Monthly critical updates that break things, and thousands of hours in development and QA a year spent on making sure that all the various software from different vendors can work together or doesn’t stop working when one change is made.
I’ve spoken with people who do QA and customer assistance for various tech companies that make “smart gadgets” and the like, “smart home” kits, fitness trackers, personal item locators, “smart” in car controls and entertainment, and more. And they tell me that Android is by far their biggest head ache. When they get an Apple bug, and it isn’t something the user is doing that is dumb- it’s a real bug in their product. When they get android complaints.... oh man. It could be anything. And I’m told that 8/10 times- the android complaints are either accompanied by a message like “you need to do better android development because my wife/etc. doesn’t have problems on their iPhone!” Or- if the user has an Apple device, support asking them to try on the Apple device works.
This is BECAUSE of Apple planned obsolescence and Draconian practices. There aren’t 400 different OS versions dating back decades that a user can be on, with billions of possible configurations and customizations or patches. There aren’t 900 ways that app developers can choose to do the same thing in the code- with 890 of them not working with other apps unless all the other apps are built with theirs in mind.
That’s a big android issue. App 1 engages a resource like the blue tooth. App 2 wants to engage it too. Needs to, to work. But the WAY that app 1 does it- makes it so app 2 can’t. So if you have app 2 and app 1- one or both wont work right. It gets worse when you start adding launchers and overlays and monitors or security stuff that adds another layer for processes to go through.
And app makers are encouraged to use the most solid and ham fisted ways to take system resources on android. Why? Because the goal for each individual app is to make sure it works. They want to build an app that will aggressively take the resources it needs and make sure that it holds them from other apps. That way app 1 works fine and you don’t give it bad reviews or bother their support. When app 2 doesn’t work because app 1 has nasty code- you give app 2 negative reviews and call them up. When that app is attached to a gadget that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars- the smart vacuum people don’t want you bashing their vacuum because the app doesn’t work do they?
Does that mean Apple products are better? No. Like I said- the project I worked on couldn’t be done with Apple hardware- and if it could be- the cost would be too high for that client. It means that when people say “Apple is too strict” or whatever- they’re missing the point. That’s something Apple sells its products on. That is their brand. It’s expensive and restrictive, and if you just follow the little thing on the box that says “requirements” then you generally won’t have problems and everything will mostly just seamlessly work with minimal set up.
But anything in tech is going to be a “questionable business practice” short of full open source NPO’s (which still have some questionable things we will save for another day.) because we are talking about money and power. We are talking about a lot of people who work in tech and like their fat paychecks and job perks and want to keep them. They aren’t going to build products that endanger those things- their goal is to do the opposite- increase the money and power they have. Get market share and keep it. Fight pirates and third parties that would dip their fingers into the pot.
You think USB or USB C standards or any of the other inventions that underpin every facet of daily life- don’t have teams of rabid lawyers and aren’t always looking for how to get their fraction of a penny from every device sold that comes within 3 feet of their patents?
Is it just a coincidence that certain software and hardware conventions are near universal- or that they have almost total adoption? No one- anywhere- has been able to think up a “better” connection than USB in 30 odd years? No. They fight off competition and big firms that can take it will bleed money- give away rights and product for free just so that they become “the standard.”
Because now, if you want to make a laptop or a peripheral- and you want 99% of people to be able to use it- it must follow that standard. That’s his standards tend to be born. Someone with the money to weather the losses, and a long term game plan, comes in and gives things away until they are the de facto majority and have the power to throw their weight around.
HD-DVD and Blu-ray, Bluetooth and 100000001 other protocols for close range wireless communications, HDMI and display port, etc. etc. going back to AC electricity vs DC and even further back than that. It’s ALL a big dirt ball mess that isn’t determined by what is “better” but by who can gain strategic advantage and market share. One of the biggest challenges facing “alternate fuel” vehicles has been and continues to be that the world is standardized on petrol.
You think it’s a coincidence that as big mi way gets involved in electric that you start seeing charging stations popping up at malls and parking lots all over? That suddenly we get tons of laws supporting electric ownership and special “green” parking spaces in premium parking markets?
It’s all part of the cycle to get people on board and create a new standard. It’s never about “freedom” except maybe with the anarchists. It’s always about WHO has control, making it YOU and not some other guy.
Whole big nightmare.
.
America was mad at Huawei for a variety of reasons, including (iirc) breaking sanctions the US had imposed on another country. They wanted Huawei to answer for this.
.
Meng Wanzhou, who is a deputy chairperson or whatever for Huawei was in Canada. Canada arrested Meng on behalf of the United States. What followed was an exceeding about of bullying and bullshit, particularly in regards to extradition.
.
China immediately proceeded to intimidation tactics. When Canada didn't give in, they arrested two Canadians (both named Michael iirc). This was in 2019. When Canada still didn't release Meng, they also changed the sentence of a Canadian convicted of selling drugs in their country to a Death Sentence.
Meng, meanwhile, has all but been getting 5 star treatment in Canada. Why the fuck we still have the bitch I have no idea - I've lost track of that part of the story because it's irrelevant in the face of the fact that at least three men are being persecuted in China. And I say at least because I don't know at this point if more have been targeted - everything is lost to the never ending drone of "covid19 scary scary bad" these days.
.
And all that isn't including China's deliberate attack on Canada's economy - banning imports of things like meat, and canola. Iirc they claimed there were parasites on the canola and God in fuck if the irony isn't playing out fantastically now.
.
I was never entirely certain how a country that already struggled to feed it's people planned on surviving without those imports, and apparently "eating Pangolins tortured to death and covered in bat-shit" was the answer.
.
.
So yeah, long story short Huawei is a goddamn corrupt, trashfire company.
Almost no single person or entity is capable of accumulating and keeping wealth and power in excess of what the “average” is unless there are questionable practices afoot. That’s a plain reality we ignore for convenience. It makes people feel bad to realize we are the problem.
.
America was mad at Huawei for a variety of reasons, including (iirc) breaking sanctions the US had imposed on another country. They wanted Huawei to answer for this.
.
Meng Wanzhou, who is a deputy chairperson or whatever for Huawei was in Canada. Canada arrested Meng on behalf of the United States. What followed was an exceeding about of bullying and bullshit, particularly in regards to extradition.
.
China immediately proceeded to intimidation tactics. When Canada didn't give in, they arrested two Canadians (both named Michael iirc). This was in 2019. When Canada still didn't release Meng, they also changed the sentence of a Canadian convicted of selling drugs in their country to a Death Sentence.
.
And all that isn't including China's deliberate attack on Canada's economy - banning imports of things like meat, and canola. Iirc they claimed there were parasites on the canola and God in fuck if the irony isn't playing out fantastically now.
.
I was never entirely certain how a country that already struggled to feed it's people planned on surviving without those imports, and apparently "eating Pangolins tortured to death and covered in bat-shit" was the answer.
.
.
So yeah, long story short Huawei is a goddamn corrupt, trashfire company.