Comments on: Apple confirms North Carolina facility

Apple has confirmed it will be building a server farm in North Carolina, investing $1 billion in the state.

[monkeyfun14]

Tax incentives for a company only promising 50 jobs? Honestly? And these are jobs the average person won't be able to do anyways. Its not the people with education who need the jobs its the laborers.

[MadLyb]

First off, realize I hate corporate welfare, especially since I live in NC and the primary milestone for this incentive package is to exceed the average wage in the county the facility is located. For the two counties mentioned, that would be about half of the going IT wage for an entry level Sys Admin. Fortunately/Hopefully the market will drive these salries much higher.

But, you really should read the article before commenting. The headcount of 50 is for direct Apple employees, when you factor in all the other workers that will work at or support the facility in state, it is quite larger.

[kcotham]

You have to factor in the ancillary jobs created. Jeesh monkeyfun, you need to go back to school and learn how to read. There will be a lot of people put to work just building the facility. Then, as the article stated, the facility will employ closer to 250 people.

The reality is that EVERYONE, educated or not, needs employment.

[schmand1231]

Oh My!

Does kcotham need a new thinking cap or is he/she a shill for Apple? Building the place is a one shot deal. After that it'll be dead weight on the tax rolls.

250 jobs? Those are really expensive janitors. Or are people dump enough to think that Apple will have skilled techies on site?!? It'll be a lights out place and they'll have admins from India login to administer it.

This sort of think will just make the state poorer. Sitting there consuming real estate and paying no taxes.

I know! they can build a GM dealership for every employee to buy a car and subsidize that as well.

[kcotham]

I'm not a "shill for Apple" and my thinking cap fits just fine.

Granted, it isn't the best investment in the world that North Carolina could have made, but it's better than the 50 jobs some people were assuming. As for outsourcing to India, Apple has a good track record for avoiding that 21st century blunder. So I doubt they will do it here. The tax incentive they got at first is not a permanent thing. Eventually the taxes they pay will be a source of revenue for the state.

Just for the record, I'm personally against tax incentives, but some times they are a necessary evil.

[websterphreaky]

"facility" ????

Don't you mean an "Overpriced Gadget and Less Than 5% Market Share Chinese Computer Outlet"

how is this story REMOTELY News ... instead of the OBVIOUS - Apple Pimp Pandering???

[CNET editors' note: Personal attack deleted]

[technewsjunkie]

You need to be taller than "this line" to post here.

[kcotham]

TROLL alert!

[Perry_Clease]

"technewsjunkie June 3, 2009 5:21 PM PDT
You need to be taller than "this line" to post here."

It isn't the physical height, there are mature and intelligent individuals who are "little people." However, we get your point, a person should be in charge of their "faculties" if they are going to troll.

[esteven4]

Now, I'm just your average guy who speaks English natively, but I believe the words "server farm" mean something entirely different than "retail store."

A retail store could be described as a "Overpriced Gadget and Less Than 5% Market Share Chinese Computer Outlet," assuming that the products sold inside qualify.

A server farm can not be.

[MyRightEye]

5% Market share? I guess some of are still using Commodore 64s too.

[gikeda]

This just doesn't sound like a good deal for North Carolina. Yes, there will be construction jobs, but those are temporary. Yes, there will be an exponential effect from this investment; however, that materializes through additional business for restaurants, hair dressers and dry cleaners. They should only count the jobs that are directly created from the server farm which is 300.

If they split the $45 million between the 300 workers, that is $150,000. If they gave $150,000 to 300 random people in North Carolina, that would have had a larger effect than this Apple deal.

[darussian12]

you do realize paying the salaries of the people is prob going to be one of apples lower expenses...the city/county/state will be raking in all sorts of tax money from property taxes to whatever business/corp taxing policy nc has..just .the property taxes on a facility like this arent going to be in the ballpark you toss away each year.

[jlopezcnet]

Ok all you guys bickering fail to see the BIGGER question here. That is quite a facility Apple is investing in. What in the world does Apple have up its sleeve.

A major push online? Are they going to buy Yahoo! or AOL and build a web services environment? Maybe they are going to really buy twitter and start tweeting video and music?

Seriously that's pretty big news.

[schmand1231]

Apple does not touch anything with < 30% margins.

Apple never did like to share. My guess would be a direct assault on RIM. iPhones, iPods the alleged iPad and come to think of it who needs AT&T?!?

[kelmon]

Indeed. I see all the numpties are out in force (again) and yet only one comment addresses something interesting - what's the damned server farm for? It'll be interesting to find out but I guess that is going to take a while.

[knowles2]

Not really I do not see any new services appearing any time soon.
I do how expect expect huge rises in people downloading and watch films, tv series, music from Apple services over the next few years. This facility is likely design just to increase capacity's in there systems and may be build in some redundancies for the current systems to meet this new demand appearing, especially as broadband speed increase and the availability of broadband is extended.

[ikramerica--2008]

Server farms also tend to expand over time.

Not to mention, the more tech jobs and tech companies NC brings to it's state, the more people will think of NC as a tech savvy state. Tech is the future, not smoking cigs.

As for "corporate wellfare"...

Since when is cutting taxes for ANYONE welfare. There is no defacto right to tax the crap out of everyone, and it's not a "gift" when you can negotiate lower taxes.

[schmand1231]

How is a big server farm with a couple of people walking around replacing the odd blade going to do NC any good?

Say did they mention who's going to pay to have all of the utilities run out to the place? I bet NC going to pay to get power to the place as well. Naturally Apple will be wanting nC to pay for the UPS's as well.

[TheForestFloor]

Some of the jobs and benefits to NC will be temporary, to be sure, but even if Apple has $46M in initial *income* tax breaks, they'll still be paying sales tax for water, power, construction equipment, transportation, payroll taxes for the 250+ workers, workers compensation, etc, which will feed directly into the state and local government coffers. Not to mention the (admittedly small) number of businesses that will sprout to feed, house, entertain and transport the new employees. I think that makes it more likely that more money will be generated for NC in the long run than the $46M Apple gets up front.

Besides, that's $1B less than the Mets and the Yankees have received from NYC for FOUR different stadiums... The city hasn't even come close to recouping any of that money, and it becomes less and less likely that they ever will. $46M is small potatoes when big cities are doling out billions and the US is doling out trillions. Even if the $46M would cover the costs of building the facility and paying all of the workers for a year (which it won't), these facilities can't just pick up and go... Unless Apple were to suddenly cease to exist (zeus forbid) NC and the target county will make their money back.

[schmand1231]

Another Apple spy sneaking about. I can't imagine how the math works this. Why does not one of the glorious NC reporters follow the money and see what the subsequent breaks are over the years?!? I presume Apple is not going to pay market rates for utilities.

Wake up people. NC been played for a fool.

NYC shot itself in the foot so NC should as well? Last time I saw a Yankee game on TV there were a lot of empty seats where the high end was supposed to be. Ih yeah and they cut the ticket price in half.

[dascha1]

It's all politics... that's all. Never will Apple have any heart or sole of its core in NC or VA or anywhere in those parts. When that day comes, hades will have frozen.

[whclevelandjr]

Well if NC doesn't want Apple, then AL will welcome them. Apple would be another jewel in our research park...

[shycelticwitch]

I can see only good coming from this venture. Apple must have something pretty spectacular up their sleeve (as always), and this is just the groundwork. Let's review some of the rather inane comments made here a year from now, and see how many of them are eating their words.

[aintnorainbowdorothy]

A server farm is a repository of information, not a manufacturing facility. Where did it say anythng about manufacturing in the article? Someone reads something and assumes the best whereas there will be only 50 direct jobs, with a hoped for 250 total? That's a ton of janitors kids. It doesn't take many people to change blades on a server. And it doesn't take many people to keep the place clean. Seems that N.C. has really been had to me. I live in South Carolina and it upsets me when we have to pay a company to locate here. That's what N.C. did, and S.C. has done the same. If they want to come here, they don't need to be paid to do so. Otherwise I think they just want the incentive and after the useful life of the facility is gone, the jobs are too.

[Mikem704]

Apple has been here before, in Charlotte with a bigger presence than they will have this time. Charlotte was a regional hub and training center. They pulled out, don't know why.

Rest assured they will have as my contract employees as possible. There are lots of kids out there who know about computers and advanced IT systems. The IT field isn't as good as it used to be.