Dollar Voting - The Power of The Consumer Vote...
Well what a week it’s been
on the web, yes there have been some serious developments across the platforms
and technology we use on a daily basis; Apple won its patent case against
Samsung resulting in the company trying to ban eight Samsung handsets from the
US market, whilst on the more subversive side tech site Gizmodo managed to
filch an Apple training manual that enlightened us as to some of the sneaky
techniques used by the firm in training their Genius employees. Top marks
Gizmodo.
Now Cybergirl doesn’t have
many gripes with Apple (the luminous technology has got her out of many a
sticky situation – as you will see from last week’s blog), but the love affair
started back in 2007 with the purchase of a shiny white Apple Mac is swiftly
starting to dwindle. After an enlightening chat with a very well respected and
highly ethical entrepreneur (as well as some research into some of Apple’s
business practices) Cybergirl is a little disappointed to say the least…
Here are my gripes:
- Not paying their taxes – why oh why Apple, amidst the reams of profit could you not siphon off just a bit to pay the IRS? No, instead you park $74 billion offshore… That’s $17 billion that the US government has lost over the past decade. $17 billion that would have come in handy when the banks were in need of a bailout…
- Remember though, if you’re a supplier the company expects you ‘to maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct.’ No irony there then.
- Work that could easily and ethically be done in the US is outsourced to China and Taiwan, why? Profit of course.
- As if that wasn’t enough there have been numerous and multiple cases of manufacturers employed by Apple allegedly indulging in some serious sweat shop practices, with workers paid as little as $50 per month in some cases.
- It is (as voted by Greenpeace) the least clean technology company, because of its reliance on ‘dirty data.’ I.e. the company relies primarily on coal power at the venues housing its bank of servers.
These ethical gripes are
followed by some of the more personal kind:
- Advising Cybergirl to purchase Mountain Lion; this would fix the Macbook which (at the time of writing) was crawling at the speed of a tortoise snorting Ketamine. After following instructions - to no avail, Cybergirl trekked down to the Regents Street store (as said Mac was still crawling) only to be told the machine (barely two years old) does not have enough ram to support Mountain Lion. Hmmmm.
- Bringing out a new ‘version’ of exactly the same product every year, to entice hard-core Apple addicts to ‘buy, buy, buy…’ Except there’s only a minimal difference between the new product and the model before, and the new ‘feature’ is more hassle than it’s worth (see Siri).
- The Genius bar; no you can’t make an appointment for multiple products at the same time; you need a separate appointment for your IPhone, IPad and computer – there’s absolutely no cross over.
- Music sharing – oh don’t get me started.
- Battery – come on guys, does it really last ten hours?
Just remember folks; every dollar paid for a particular product must be considered a ‘dollar vote for that product’. Use your vote wisely. Yes they’re beautiful, shiny (and new), they all synch up, but if we can vote with the power of our pockets we can collectively force the company to become more ethical.
Do you have a gripe with Apple? If so comment below...
Catch up with Cybergirl next week for an insight into more ethical technology manufacturers.
Do you have a gripe with Apple? If so comment below...
Catch up with Cybergirl next week for an insight into more ethical technology manufacturers.
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On another note, this was
the week that A Small World founders Eric and Louise Wachtmeister came surging
back onto the webosphere, with another exclusive social network – Best of All Worlds; the concept to loop in the top 1%; the entrepreneurs, thinkers and
creatives that make the world go round (assuming they’re not already linked up
via Linked in, FB or Twitter). But is there a danger in a social network being
that bit too exclusive, as happened with ASW? Harvey Weinstein himself invested
and later came to regret it; calling it his worst ‘booby’ ever…
Logging on does seem to
have the same ‘uber exclusive’ vibe as ASW; the listings are luxe – Harvey
Nichols, Tiffany, Claridges, the features are exclusive – so what’s new? Does
the world really need another social network?
There must have been something in the USP to target investors (and there must have been a fair few pennies as BOAW is clean, sharp and brand spankingly high spec), but so far Cybergirl can’t spot it – they may claim to harness the movers, shakers and thinkers of the world, but the proof will be in the pudding. Since what the Wachtmeisters are selling is BOAW’s potential address book, we’ll have to wait to see who joins. But one thing’s for sure; FB, Twitter and Google – those giant success stories of the web certainly didn’t get to where they are by keeping people out. So is it a case of making the same mistake, but expecting a different result? More shall we revealed.
There must have been something in the USP to target investors (and there must have been a fair few pennies as BOAW is clean, sharp and brand spankingly high spec), but so far Cybergirl can’t spot it – they may claim to harness the movers, shakers and thinkers of the world, but the proof will be in the pudding. Since what the Wachtmeisters are selling is BOAW’s potential address book, we’ll have to wait to see who joins. But one thing’s for sure; FB, Twitter and Google – those giant success stories of the web certainly didn’t get to where they are by keeping people out. So is it a case of making the same mistake, but expecting a different result? More shall we revealed.
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