Apple Corporate

Apple last year found a number of workplace violations, including use of underage workers, among its suppliers, even as those companies are coming more in line with Apple's standards.

In 2009, according to its 2010 Progress Report (PDF), Apple's audits of suppliers turned up 17 core violations, those that it considers to be the most serious practices or situations that run counter to the central principles of the company's Supplier Code of Conduct.

Of those core violations, three involved the hiring of underage workers; three involved the use of noncertified vendors for the disposal of hazardous waste; … Read more

CUPERTINO, Calif.--The presence of one of the world's pre-eminent environmentalists at Apple's shareholder meeting Thursday was the subject of much of the morning's pointed discussion.

As expected, Apple's attitude on environmental and sustainability issues was one of the main concerns of the stockholders present Thursday, followed closely by the company's immense pile of cash. But early harsh comments about former Vice President Al Gore's record set the tone.

Gore was seated in the first row, along with his six fellow board members, in Apple's Town Hall auditorium as several stockholders took turns … Read more

Apple has cut some staff working on its Final Cut video editing software suite, according to a report by a video industry insider.

"Apple laid off 40 of my old Final Cut team yesterday, lots of good people, despite high profits," said Pete Warden in a tweet last week. Warden, a data-mining former Apple employee who writes plug-ins for Adobe Systems' After Effects video software, also noted the cuts on his blog.

The tweet surfaced at Rich Young's AE Portal News blog, which deals with After Effects.

Apple declined to comment on the matter.

With successful products … Read more

There is something touching about honesty in business. It's heartening when beyond the tittle and the tattle, true feelings emerge.

So you may be moved to utter something of a titter when I tell you of a report that Apple CEO Steve Jobs last week likened Google's "Don't be evil" mantra to the excreta of a bull.

According to Wired, Jobs held a town hall meeting at Apple last week after unveiling the iPad and fielded questions on many different topics. However, he appears to have saved some of his most deep-seated humor for a … Read more

Apple first-quarter 2010 earnings soared past Wall Street expectations Monday, with the company reporting a profit of $3.37 billion, or $3.74 per share.

That's up 50 percent from the same quarter a year ago, when profits reached $2.26 billion, or $2.54 per share.

Revenue for the quarter was $15.6 billion, up 32 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Wall Street was expecting between $11.21 billion and $12.6 billion in revenue on earnings of $2.07 per share. And Apple always gives an overly conservative estimate; last quarter, Apple said it … Read more

There has been a lot of speculation as to what Apple's rumored tablet will look like and how it will work. One analyst is now speculating on how much potential revenue the device, expected to be announced next week, could bring the Mac maker.

Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital estimates that Apple will sell each tablet for $600, according to an AppleInsider report. At that price, the "base case" scenario of 5 billion units sold during the first year would bring Apple an additional $2.8 billion in revenue.

Of course, we all know how important price … Read more

We had heard that Apple was pitching its yet to be launched (or even confirmed) tablet device to publishers, but a Wall Street Journal story posted Monday offers a few potential specifics.

The story, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, says HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating a deal with Apple that would make electronic books available for the tablet. HarperCollins is expected to set the prices of the e-books and Apple would take a percentage of sales, according to the story. Whether Apple will sell titles via iTunes or a new e-book store "couldn't be learned," according … Read more

An analyst at AVI Securities said Friday morning that the Apple tablet is "in full production" and a research note stated that Apple "NAND" flash chip requirements may be increasing because of the tablet.

The Apple tablet information comes from "a maker of components going into the Apple tablet," according to analyst Matt Thornton. "It's been in the supply chain for a while and entered full production this month. A couple of suppliers actually had weaker Decembers than they would have expected because production was pushed back a little bit," he … Read more