Second Short Quiz – Prologue + Parts 1 & 2

[johnkarls]

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PROLOGUE: “INCOMPARABLE” ARROGANCE

1. Did Xi Jinping, President of China since 3/14/2013, on the day following his inauguration launch a sustained attack on Apple in the Chinese media???

2. Following all the 1976-1997 lean years (including near bankruptcy in 1996 which brought Steve Jobs back), did Apple shift all of its manufacturing to China???

3. Did Apple open its first retail store in China in 2008 with, because the iPhone was so popular in China, sales of $1 billion – which ballooned to $23 billion by the time of Xi Jinping’s 3/15/2013 attack???

4. Does Apple’s Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for 2012 disclose that Apple’s worldwide net income was only $41.7 billion??? Does this mean that if Apple’s $23 billion of China sales had dropped to ZERO, its net income would be slashed more than 55% to $18.7 billion???

5. Does Patrick McGee report (p. 4) that Apple believed that Xi Jinping’s sustained media attack was “…something of a twenty-first century show trial: Beijing had deliberately accused Apple of something that it (sic – McGree obviously means “it” to refer to China even though his antecedent is Apple) knew wasn’t true, in order to demonstrate it power???

6. Do we really need to read any further to further to comprehend Patrick McGee’s subtitle – “The Capture of the World's Greatest Company”???

7. In other words, even though McGee says some China apologists within Apple concocted a different and benign interpretation of Xi Jinping’s attack, was Apple post-3/15/2013 attack nothing more than a Xi Jinping puppet that Xi could make do anything he wanted???

8. BTW, whose “’Incomparable’ Arrogance” do you think McGee was referencing – Apple’s or Xi Jinping’s???


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PART ONE: SAVING APPLE
CHAPTER 1: THE BRINK OF BANKRUPTCY

9. Does Chapter 1 review in detail the ancient 1976-1997 lean years (including near bankruptcy in 1996 which brought Steve Jobs back)???

10. Did you learn anything new about this period other than the new item that Yours Truly learned (p. 20) –

“One venture capitalist said, ‘Apple’s management ought to be prosecuted for war crimes.’ Steve Jobs would pin blame on John Scully, his handpicked CEO who, after a feud, ousted Jobs in 1985 and led, the company for more than a decade.”

NB: it is curious that Patrick McGee didn’t drop a footnote to tell us who the venture capitalist was – since it is obvious that “prosecuted for war crimes” was NOT meant literally so there is no danger the venture capitalist would be sued successfully for defamation if John Scully was grossly incompetent.


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PART ONE: SAVING APPLE
CHAPTER 2: ADVENTURES IN OUTSOURCING – JAPAN AND TAIWAN

11. Was LaserWriter (pp. 29-30) Apple’s first big success – piggybacking Apple’s first Mac on Canon/Japan’s laser copier thereby birthing the world’s first affordable desktop publishing in 1984???

12. Was LaserWriter too late to save Steve Jobs’ job – Jobs losing a boardroom showdown with Scully (referenced in Q-10) and resigning for the first of two times 3/16/1985???

NB: the second of two times was when Steve Jobs resigned August 2011 in favor of his long-time right-hand man (Tim Cook) because Steve Jobs’ pancreatic cancer which he had had since 2003, was about to kill him 10/5/2011 at age 56.

13. BTW, virtually all corporate board members are appointed by the CEO of every corporation “under whose thumb” they then serve – so how did Steve Jobs lose control over them??? After all, LaserWriter meant they no longer had to fear bankruptcy vis-à-vis which the specter of being sued personally by shareholders is the only thing that causes a board revolt???

14. Was the Newton (pp. 33-35) a proto-Blackberry that was developed with Inventec of Taiwan and completed in August 1993???


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PART ONE: SAVING APPLE
CHAPTER 3: AN “OUTRAGEOUS” ACQUISITION

15. Was Apple’s “’outrageous’ acquisition” its acquisition from Steve Jobs 12/20/1996 his NeXT operating system for $400 million which he had developed [while also engaged in other projects such as developing a computer-developed film (Toy Story) for Disney] -- during his 1985-1997 absence from Apple???

16. Must it be termed an “acquisition” rather than a “purchase” because the price included 1.5 million Apple shares as well as stock options, cash and Apple debt???

17. Did the deal also provide that Steve Jobs would return to Apple as its CEO???


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PART ONE: SAVING APPLE
CHAPTER 4: COLUMBUS – A NEW WORLD OF COMPUTING
CHAPTER 5: “Unmanufacturable = the iMac”

18. Why do you think that Patrick McGee (“Mc” meaning an Irish “son of”) gave a gratuitous “shout out” in his Chapter 4 title to Christopher Columbus who was an Italian explorer working for the Spanish???

19. Are Chapters 4 & 5 filled with additional fascinating details of Apple history before China President Xi Jinping made Apple a Chinese puppet on 3/15/2013 (ref. Q-1)???


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PART TWO: APPLE’S LONG MARCH TO CHINA
CHAPTER 6-12

20. Was the iMac, introduced 5/6/1998, manufactured by “LC” in Korea??? Does Patrick McGee identify “LC” any further???

21. Does Chapter 7 record that by late 1998, Apple began to shut down its own factories???

22. Does Chapter 8 say (p, 76) that “…two product lines in the ‘quadrant strategy’ – the entry-level iBook and the PowerBook – were assembled in Taiwan”???

23. Does Chapter 8 (pp. 83-85) pick up the story of Taiwan’s Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group) which (per Q&A-5 of the First Short Quiz) later did all the work of establishing zillions of manufacturing enclaves such as Shenzhen, but began its relationship with Apple by manufacturing sockets and connectors???

24. Does Chapter 9 chronicle how Taiwan’s Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group) went “ever upward” (the meaning of the Latin-word motto Excelsior)???

25. Does Chapter 10 focus on Tim Cook, a rising star at IBM 1982-1997 who joined Apple following Steve Jobs’ return in 1997??? Was one of Tim Cook’s first significant moves getting a second assembler for iMac in 1999 – supplementing LC with Taiwan’s Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group)???

26. Does Chapter 11 chronicle how Taiwan’s Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group) went global???

27. Does Chapter 12 explain how the progression from huge mainframe computers in the 1970s to pocket-size computers by the 2000s and China’s joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 meant the end of Apple own factories and complete out-sourcing???