Honestly speaking, I really like Apple products as they are innovative and fun to have and not for forget, productive. But recently some news about Apple’s behavior has compelled me to think about what the company culture is and what are they actually promoting.
As we already know that Steve Jobs locked out Adobe from iPhone and now iPad for the reason only known to him but 2 news pieces caught my eye and now I am actually thinking about getting into more details of how Apple not only treats their own employees but also their customers.
First one is what happened 2 days ago when a Reuters reported was captured by Foxconn’s facility guards because he was taking pictures of the facility standing on a public road. This facility is known to manufacture Apple’s products and parts. Although Police was called but the guards could not prove their actions being legit so the reported was let go. It was fortunate of them that the reported did not press charges. But then again, what the hell? How can someone or some corporation guards can take the law in their own hands and treat anyone like this. I know it might have been wrong on the reporter’s part too but dragging him out of his cab and then calling in the Police, for what? Click here if you want to read more of this story.
Second is when a customer was asked to hand over his Jail Broken iPod touch by Apple Store employees, including the Store Manager. Now this is really f’d up. If a customer has bought a product, then he / she owns the right to do whatever he / she wishes to and all the manufacturer can do is to void his warranty. But they did not, they too called in the Police claiming that the device customer was carrying was ILLEGAL. After the Police was told by the customer about his rights of suing Apple’s behind for harassing him, they let him go (well they did not have a case in the first place). The store manager and another employee did not argue more and let the customer go as Police told them they did not have a chance to make a case in the first place after talking to the customer. Read the full story here.
Now you tell me, if I buy a PC, mod it, over clock my CPU or RAM and then use it then would Intel or AMD come to my house telling me that it is ILLEGAL. You’re damn right they won’t. So why does Apple (as a company including their CEO) have an attitude of dissing anyone they don’t like or they feel is not right.
Search the Internet, you will find many more stories, including the one in which an employee was beaten to death just because he leaked some info or another one in which an employee committed suicide just because he lost the prototype device.
Is it that scary to work for Apple or even being associated with the company? I know competition is tough but its not worth lives of people who make the company what it is by buying their products.