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Apple Shareholder’s Meeting Roundup

Liam Cassidy — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:00:33 +0000

Yesterday Apple held its annual shareholder’s meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. All the top brass were there to answer questions from the men and women to whom, let’s face it, they must eventually answer. Of course, that didn’t stop Steve Jobs from being his usual tactless self, quipping during a lengthy comment from one shareholder, “Do you have a question?”

There’s a lot of information to digest, so I’ve condensed the juiciest morsels into what I hope is a more accessible short-form. Here goes!

All seven board members were re-elected; there was an advisory vote on executive compensation and Apple’s public accounting firm was chosen (it’s Ernst & Young, by the way.) Votes also were cast on two shareholder proposals. The first called for a published “sustainability report” detailing the company’s environmental policies and its contingency planning in the face of climate change. The second proposal was for the creation of a second board of directors, tasked with overseeing Apple’s environmental policies and business strategy in the face of climate change. The board felt they were already doing a fine job in both these areas, and recommended voting against the new proposals. Votes were counted and, unsurprisingly, neither proposal was successful.

Green

According to Macworld, Jobs claimed that Apple is the first company to work directly with suppliers on issues ranging from environmental impact to worker protection and education. Macworld’s Dan Frakes writes;

Taking a jab at other companies, as well as organizations such as Greenpeace, [Jobs] noted that “other companies just make promises” and attend conferences and events to “schmooze with [environmental groups], but the work ain’t getting done,” whereas Apple is actually taking steps to improve the company’s real-world green credentials and treatment of workers.

Jobs also noted that the smaller packaging used across Apple’s product line has reduced the number of annual cargo flights “by the hundreds”;

“It’s the right thing to do from an environmental point of view; it’s the right thing to do from a business point of view.”

Money

In its first quarter 2010 investor conference call, Apple announced it had $39.8 billion in the bank at the end of December 2009. The question now is, what on earth should it do with it? Spend it? Save it for the next recession? Perhaps pay dividends to shareholders — something BusinessWeek says the company has not done since 1995? Jobs said;

We know if we need to acquire something – a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold – we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk. The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.

You never know what opportunities are going to be around the next corner. We are a large enough business now that, in order to really move the needle, we have to be thinking pretty bold – pretty large.

New Role

On the matter of Apple’s new role as a ‘mobile devices’ company (first announced by Jobs in January and reiterated by Tim Cook in last month’s earnings call) Jobs said;

This is not something that we’re ordaining from the top. This is something our customers are saying with their dollars, if you just look at the products that we’re selling. They’re telling us what they think is important and we’re reflecting that.

But specifically, what does this mean about the future of Apple’s desktop Macs, the iMac and Mac Pro? “We love desktop computers,” El Jobso assured the shareholders, “And plan to continue making them.” So, that’s alright then.

Asia

When asked about Apple’s efforts to increase international sales, Jobs turned to (VP of Retail) Ron Johnson, who announced that Apple is looking to open 24 more stores in China to join the existing store in Beijing. This is to be expected, given how important (and lucrative) China is to Apple. DigitalDaily’s John Paczkowski writes, “Mac sales in China increased nearly 100 percent year over year in the first financial quarter of 2010… while iPhone sales [are] ramping up.”

Apple's Beijing Store

Beyond the Mac, Paczkowski quotes Tim Cook on Apple’s overall revenue in that market;

“…if you look at greater China last quarter, which is China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, our revenues tripled year-over-year… We have a tremendous focus on it.”

I guess it’s only right China should get a little Apple-love… after all, they make most of Apple’s gear in the first place!

Stability

Finally, there was a moment of fun, Jobs-style; a shareholder wanted to know of Jobs, “What keeps you up at night?”

“Shareholder meetings,” Jobs immediately shot back, before getting very serious and adding, thoughtfully;

“Apple requires stability in the world. People aren’t going to worry about which laptop to buy if they can’t afford dinner, can’t afford to send their kids to school, can’t afford textbooks. There are things much bigger than us that are out of our control. So we try to just do the best we can.”

Bravo, Steve. And bravo, Apple.

Apple Shareholders Re-Elect Board

David Appleyard — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:17:57 +0000

The annual Apple shareholders meeting had a different tone than usual on Wednesday, lacking the presence of company CEO Steve Jobs. The Apple board hasn’t had a straightforward year, leading the company through a global financial crisis and aiming to stem the ongoing investor uncertainty surrounding Steve Jobs’ health.

Shareholders seemed to embrace the positive on the whole, wishing Jobs a Happy Birthday (he turned 54 on Tuesday) and offering mixed opinion on how the board handled disclosing information surrounding recent events.

A Healthy CEO

As expected, a great deal of time and attention was given to Steve Jobs. As the man who has provided visionary leadership for the company in recent years, to many he is a vital member of the Apple corporate machine. His announcement of escalating health concerns last month caused a stir in the technology press, with rumors about his condition changing every day. Thankfully, this has now settled down as people have come to realize that Apple won’t collapse without his presence.

Shareholders approached the board with a mix of acceptance that personal matters need to be kept private, and questions of whether enough information has been provided. According to Fortune, they were in good enough spirit to sing Happy Birthday and wish him well.

Comments from an Apple shareholder for 20 years, Roland Quintero of Palo Alto, Calif., summarized the general consensus well:

The problem is between corporate and personal responsibility. Anything Apple says would affect the market. The board’s decision reflects a desire to maintain stability and market share. As a shareholder, I, personally, would like to know more, but I understand the no-win situation the company is in.

It’s good to see that shareholders do accept that a level of privacy is needed, both for the sake of Jobs and his family, and also to preserve a stable share price for the company. As the months without Jobs tick by (and software/hardware releases keep coming), Apple seems to be coping very well with Tim Cook temporarily running the company. It would be great to see Jobs back and fighting fit in the future, but this stint without him should go a long way towards showing that Apple has the internal vision and direction to continue innovating without him at the helm.

Re-electing the Board

The shareholders made the decision to re-elect the entire Apple board of 8 people, including former vice president Al Gore and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Votes were taken on four proposals to change shareholder say on executive compensation, increase required company disclosure and alter staff healthcare provision, but none were passed.

The decision to retain all board members demonstrates a show of support on behalf of the shareholders, and a belief that the company is still being lead by those with the knowledge and expertise to ensure future success. It’s exactly what Apple needed to retain stability and confidence in otherwise turbulent times.

In typical secret fashion, Apple prohibited attendees from carrying mobile or communications devices into the shareholder meeting, to ensure that information wasn’t misinterpreted or leaked during the presentation. Despite this, a few tweets did manage to leak out while the meeting was in progress.

Dividend Payments

Questions surrounded dividend payments, with hopes from shareholders that a portion of Apple’s extensive cash balance would be used to reward those investing in the company. Apple held over $25 billion in cash at the end of the most recent quarter, the second largest cash level among high-tech companies.

With many companies struggling financially at present, Apple would appear to be in a strong position to continue operations as normal, along with pumping money into research and development. With any luck, they’ll come out of the current recession with an ever-improving hardware and software lineup. On the whole, the re-election of the board and wishes for Steve Jobs’ return to good health bode well for the company.

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Weekly App Store Roundup: Jan. 10, 2009

Olly Farshi — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:45:54 +0000

After our first week proper in 2009, we’ve run smack-bang in to a hurricane of Apple news courtesy of this year’s Macworld event.

Over at Apple’s final MacWorld Keynote, standing in for Papa Jobs, Uncle Phil unveiled brand new iLife and iWork suites, alongside completing the Macbook Pro lineup with a 17″ model touting 8 hours of battery life.

And, to finish proceedings off, Apple revealed special singing guest Tony Bennett, allowing the adoring audience to bask in the warmth of his orange glow as he crooned the keynote to a close.

While everyone else at TheAppleBlog has had their eye on Macworld, I’ve been rolling around in the App Store and getting friendly with the latest additions.

This week I’ve been looking at Keynote Remote, Wallpaper Notes, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and Bank Panic.

Keynote Remote ($0.99)
If you’re passionate and prepared, presenting can be a true pleasure. Keynote, being the polished application that it is, makes both preparation and execution a breeze. When I present, the Apple Remote is a key tool: enabling me to present in a fluid and relaxed manner. Using the Remote, I’m not looking at a screen or even notes, I’m looking at — and engaging with — the audience. If you want your presentations to be more effective, don’t bother with this app, go back to basics — learn your subject inside out, practice, relax and, on the day, enthuse.

Wallpaper Notes ($0.99)
Apple’s embedded Notes app is already out-dated; there’s no desktop or web sync, no reminders functionality, no bells and a distinct absence of whistles. I replaced Notes with Evernote, which incorporates a cavalcade of note-taking features. Wallpaper Notes does nothing special, bar one killer feature: saving notes as iPhone wallpaper, meaning that a quick check of the screen keeps you informed. A cunning work-around indeed.

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center (free)
Back when I worked for the European-arm of an American mobile media publisher, I learnt two important things: a white vest and organic American Apparel underwear are only ever acceptable work-wear when working from home, and, when we conducted large-scale meetings with our cousins ‘cross the pond, Cisco’s WebEx was an invaluable tool in bringing us together. Long-awaited by iPhone-touting business folk, this mobile implementation of WebEx incorporates audio-visual presentations and even chat functionality.

Bank Panic ($0.99)
It’s a morbidly apt premise for a simple iPhone game and I love it: bankrupt stock brokers have taken to hurling themselves out of high-rises due to the global financial crisis. It’s your job to stop the depressed Dow dealers snapping their supple skulls on the hard floor by catching their falling bodies in your miracle blanket. Now if this deliciously horrid plot wasn’t reason enough to purchase the game, here’s the really clever bit: the game’s difficulty is linked to the real-world value of the Dow Jones — the lower the Dow drops, the tougher the gameplay gets.

Just One More Thing

It seems that this week’s Roundup has been of a decidedly productive nature, covering tools for meetings, note-taking and presenting. Even Bank Panic has serious under-currents with its amusing use of the declining Dow Jones feeding the stock-brokers’ suicide rate.

So it’s time we lighten the mood a little as, like Sauron’s great big burning eye in the sky, I’m going to turn my cyclopean gaze to the future and draw your attention to a very promising iPhone game due out soon.

Bovine Dragon Software are the designers behind Trace, an inventive game that involves drawing the platforms that your character traverses in each stage, released last year. About to pop its youngling head out from the womb of development is Bovine Dragon’s latest creation, Gomi.

From the cutesy preview videos, it seems that Gomi is a mash-up of Mario Galaxy, Katamari Damacy and LocoRoco, wrapped in graphics that look like they were drawn in Microsoft Paint. According to the developers, the eco-friendly, grinning Gomi will be out by February, in the meantime, check out the videos to see the game in action.

Over the course of the holiday season, I decided to invest in Gameloft’s Uno for iPhone. The game is bug-ridden, clunky and slow, certainly not worth the five bucks I paid for it. And I should have known better – I’ve previously worked for a big mobile publisher and developer, based on my own experience and general industry chit-chat with my peers, I know exactly what goes in to the development of these games.

Perhaps it’s an effort to appease the needs of licensors, or to hit unrealistic release dates promised by uncommunicative marketing and sales departments, maybe it’s to please investors (who are often shielded from a proper overview of the business by misguided MDs) or it’s as distasteful as knowingly rushing a title out with a recognizable logo pasted on to it (that acts as a horridly misleading seal of quality), there are a multitude of possible reasons as to why games from the big developers and publishers are often offensively shoddy disappointments.

I’ll summarize my point as such: look at Tapulous, Hand Circus and Illusion Labs – bastions of quality independent development. It’s time the big guys started taking notes from the little guys.

That’s all from the App Store for this week, I’m quitting my jibber jabber for another 7 days and I’ll be back next Saturday with more apps. In the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what apps you’ve been looking at.

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My first Apple User Group: MetroMac

Iyaz Akhtar — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:33:21 +0000

I recently attended a workshop about Final Cut Pro at the Apple Store SoHo. To my surprise, immediately following the workshop was a meeting of a a local Apple User Group called the Metropolitan New York Macintosh Alliance or “MetroMac” for short. I stuck around for the meeting since I had never been to one of these meetings before and there was going to be a discussion of the upcoming Macworld. The user group was made up of a wide range of people with varying ages.

There were two moderators. I didn’t get their names, so I will call them “Leader Guy” and “Second-in-Command.” I bet you can tell who did what with my clever titles for these gentlemen. The user group began with Macintosh problems. Members of the audience would ask questions and Leader Guy would try to answer the questions before opening up the question to other audience members. Leader Guy turned out to be one of the snarkiest human beings I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing in real life.

An audience member said, “I know you’ve never recommended Internet security software…” before getting cut off by Leader Guy who exclaimed, “I’ve never said that! You would be wrong.” The audience member replied, “I get things wrong all the time.” Leader Guy would not let this point go, “Then you would be wrong this time, too.” This did not seem like a friendly user-group. Considering the two’s dialog, it appeared they had a bit of a history. Maybe this was just sarcasm between friends. The same audience member asked about her G5 tower and how its CD-tray would open whenever she started the computer. Leader Guy’s response? “Congratulations.” Another audience member helped out by suggesting she unplug a peripheral and then see if the G5 had the problem. Again, I tried to write this exchange off as some kind of sarcasm between friends.

On the topic of Internet security, Leader Guy suggested turning off file sharing. A different audience member chimed in, “But I need to have file sharing on.” Leader Guy’s response? “No. You want to have file sharing on. You do not need it.” Terrific. Leader Guy seemed far from helpful. Second-in-Command was a rather nice fellow occasionally making good-natured security password jokes. When using a router was mentioned, Second-in-Command asked the audience if they knew what a router was — just in case. The audience seemed to reply with positive head nods. Leader Guy proceeded to tell the group how routers work.

After Leader Guy accidentally hit my MacBook Pro’s screen without apologizing, I had enough. I stuck around for forty-five minutes but Leader Guy was unbearable. Even the promise of a Macworld discussion was not enough to make me stick around. I have only been a Mac user for about two or three years. I had heard about snarky, know-it-all, Mac users but I had never actually experienced or dealt with anyone that fit that description. I have had several discussions with other Mac users over the past couple of months since I have been regularly attending my local Apple Store’s free workshops on Final Cut Pro. No one was similar to Leader Guy.

Looking beyond Leader Guy, the user group actually had some good information. Having a knowledgeable group of Mac users in one room has it advantages. Group members were able to solve problems of other group members. There was even a wireless microphone so questions could be heard by everyone in the group. Perhaps your past user group experiences were different; I’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

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