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As US sinks, Apple sees a glorious future in China

Apple may have disappointed Wall Street by not meeting their conservative predictions for its most recent fiscal quarter, but that didn't stop Cupertino from predicting that next quarter will be a barn burner. The consensus on Wall Street was that Apple's earnings per share would be $7.28, according to the Thomson Financial …

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Goat Jam
Mushroom

Why can't they (all the corps, not just apple) just pay fricking tax like the rest of the Joe Shmucks do.

Nobody gives the little guy a "tax holiday" ever.

No wonder those guys are down there in Wall Street (and other places).

Steven Roper
Pirate

Unfortunately for Apple

China's views on "intellectual property" do not mirror those of the West. The moment Apple tries to hit Huawei or some other Chinese conglomerate with one of its ridiculous black-rectangle lawsuits over there, I'll be looking forward to watching the mighty communist machine skin and gut the fuckers. Popcorn please!

Anonymous Coward
Pirate
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Exactly

Funny how Apple has gone after Samsung but not even sniffed at the Chinese Manufacturer's of the iPed and aPad etc. who have unashamedly tried to copy their products look, feel and name openly.

ratfox
Facepalm
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@Exactly: Well, duh

How much do you think is the loss of market share to the iPed and aPad, compared to the Galaxy Tab?

Captain Underpants
Meh
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Thus far, comparatively little. But then, thus far Apple don't seem to have cared much about the Chinese market.

Now that they're openly looking to compete in that market, presumably taking their existing "premium product, premium price" model with them, such issues will quickly come to the forefront.

Where it'll get *really* interesting is in 12-18 months, because either:

a) Apple will find it harder than anticipated to sell in the Chinese market due to the much higher extent of such intellectual property violations and thus under-perform, or

b) Apple perform as predicted despite IP violations, while lobbying for an excuse to return that money to the US, providing those rival companies who have US holding corps with great ammunition for overturning verdicts like the Samsung bans (as in "hey, they've admitted that in china even with copycat rival products they still did gangbusters, why the hell can't we sell our copycat products and pay tax to Uncle Sam along the way?"

ratfox
Facepalm
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@Underpants

"Thus far Apple don't seem to have cared much about the Chinese market"

...Sorry, what? Apple started selling the iPhone there in 2009. It is already their second biggest market! You can bet your sweet underpants that they have cared about it.

The reason they care more about the Galaxy Tab than about the iPed is that the Galaxy Tab is actually a comparable product in quality. Nobody would think that of an iPed.

Pete Spicer
Holmes

Hmm, company predicts quarter that contains Christmas is going to be profitable... REALLY?

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Firstly I want to reiterate comment from here: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/06/21/tax_repatriation_holiday/

Eduard Coli (Enough already )

I hope Apple sink all their money into China. Offshoring has been a glowing success in every case I've seen.

Call centres are a shining light for us all, sustomers love the thrill of speaking to people in foreign countries at no extra cost, the call centres have excellent knowledge of the laws in the countries they respond to and their honesty, diligence and commitment to customers is beyond reproach.

They know that if they don't they will suffer terrible consiquences.

China has been fantastic at looking after Apple, not ripping off their designs and manufacturing process, associating their products with slave labour, avoidable deaths from cost cutting and poor working conditions and not causing such distress that the people making the products kill themselves in large numbers.

It's also a fantastic way to thank your consumers by sending their money to a few unsrupulous people in more needy economies rather than building up huge, unecesarry reserves in the country that seeks to play fair and gave you the opportunity to build your empire.

These guys don't deserve a tax holiday, they deserve the keys to each and every city in the country and unfettered access the gold reserves.

And medals, they should get some medals too.

Steven Roper
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To the person who downvoted this AC

I think your sarcasm meter is broken, mate.

ColonelClaw
Joke

It's the changing of the guard

I remember back in the good ol' days (the 80s) it was all about being big in Japan. Just ask Alphaville, Spinal Tap, Mr. Big etc. etc.

Thomas 18
Terminator

Start building those arcologies

that is all.

cnapan

Tax Holiday My Arse

So here we have one of the most successful US companies in history, and also one of the most profitable, thanks in part to its decision to get cheap workers on the other side of the planet to make its expensive gadgets.

Then it has the nerve to want to deny the people in the US not just the chance to be employed making their things, but to benefit from the taxation that such a profitable company wants to avoid paying?

You've got to admire the balls of these people. It reminds me of the bankers here in the UK who did what the hell they liked because they were 'too big to fail'.

:-(

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward
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If the US doesn't want to give them a tax holiday ...

Then I guess they'll just have to move their headquarters to somewhere else that will. Welcome to global capitalism.

Drew V.
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The Have-Shares versus The Have-No-Shares

The American shareholders of Apple benefit from all that. So it's not so much the benefit of Chinese citizens vs. the benefit of American citizens (altough that's often what it looks like at the worker level, certainly) but Americans with capital vs. Americans without capital. Put differently, it's the 1% versus the 99%.

Funny how so many things can be reduced to a single issue (inequality) these days, is it not?

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward
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That's just it, Drew, the shareholders don't benefit. No dividend.

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Tax holiday or not i bet they don't end up paying tax on the money, whether it stays offshore or gets laundered into the country.

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Well, it is a lot easier to make a profit

when your product is produced by slave labor in China.

Eduard Coli
Childcatcher

Apple and the rest on them

Apple is possibly ignoring the wholesale ripoff of not only their products but even their stores that is rampant in the PRC. Like other corps. they will not be able to lobby to get laws passed to stop this kind of thing because it is endemic at all levels in the workers paradise.

Corps. who profit abroad should have to pay tariff on labor the same way they do on products imported into the US. As it stands now Apple and others can act like a domestic company in the US but manufacture and hire abroad.

Steven Roper
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Tariff on foreign labour same as imported goods

That's a really bloody good idea. If you ever want to run for office, you have my vote!

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