Apple Had a Really Bad Day and It's No Joke
Apple's having a bad day. After chief executive Tim Cook posted a letter to the people of China, apologizing for the company's poor customer service there and more or less admitting that people think Apple's arrogant, the stock price dropped nearly four percent. That's a lot of coin when you consider the stock price was worth $440 dollars a share when the day began.
It might not be so bad if the stock wasn't already on a downward spiral. In fact, the company's lost nearly half its value since the stock price topped out at $665.15 sending the market cap to a record high of $623.5 billion last August. Cue up the cries of "Steve Jobs never would've let this happen."
Let's stop right there. This is not Steve Jobs's fault. You can ascribe Apple's rough run of things lately a lot of different ways, many of which I don't even want to get into, but the company's problems are a lot bigger than the absence of its founder could explain. Samsung, for example, is now evidently the hot brand with young people, and the Android ecosystem in general has a diversity that's unrivaled.
That doesn't mean people aren't buying iPhones anymore, but the notion that Apple's grip on the market was bulletproof has been shattered in recent month. This is why people started talking about the Apple bubble in the months that followed that jaw-dropping record last year.
Apple's latest troubles do have a specific starting point. In recent weeks, Chinese state media have intensified their criticism of the company. The trouble is in the company's warranty policies and repair practices. (Long story short: Chinese customers complained that Apple repaired phones when they said they had replaced them.) While largely absent in Western media outlets, the outcry became loud enough to force Cook's hand.
"We are aware that a lack of communications … led to the perception that Apple is arrogant and doesn't care or attach enough importance to consumer feedback," Mr. Cook wrote in a letter posted to Apple's Chinese website. "We express our sincere apologies for any concerns or misunderstandings this gave consumers."
This is exactly what the company doesn't want to happen. China is the world's largest market for smartphones, tablets and computers — among many many other things — and Apple is the new kid in town. The company is also likely aware that the Chinese love American technology, much of which it hasn't had access to, and stands to be Apple's best group of customers. All that said, there's some inherent tension growing between Apple's manufacturing practices in China, and its hope to get an iPhone in the hands of every person on the mainland. It's bad press if Apple's reportedly abusing both its workers and its consumers in China.
Even though Tim Cook's tone might've gotten lost in translation, Apple's responding to the criticism with more than rhetoric. The company is extending the warranties on the iPhone 4 and 4S models and will also replace any broken phones, rather than continuing its previous practice of simply replacing parts. Surely, they'll try to curb the arrogance when they do deal with warranties, too.
As for that nosedive in the stock market, even the word's most successful companies have good days and bad days. On that note, Apple needs to continue being good to its Chinese customers, or this will just be another one of many bad days to come.
motherboard.vice
