The Wall Street Journal reported today that Apple and GT Advanced Technologies have reached a settlement in their ongoing bankruptcy case. The settlement, which was approved by the courts earlier today, gives the sapphire supplier up to four years to sell its current stock of sapphire production equipment in order to repay Apple.
The two companies previously went head-to-head over who should be considered responsible for the complete failure of the partnership, with GT blaming Apple for making demands the company couldn’t meet while blocking any other contracts GT may have wanted to accept. Apple, on the other hand, blames GT for accepting a contract and then failing to provide the agreed-upon product.
As a result of the disagreement, Apple argued that GTAT owed the Cupertino company repayment of funds that were used to buy the sapphire furnaces. Apple also wanted to get back the money that it had paid for the sapphire shipments it never received.
The solution was to sell the furnaces and give Apple a large share of the money. Of course, the two companies then bickered about the size of Apple’s cut. In order to appease creditors looking into the situation, Apple decided to grant GT a larger portion of the money.
The tech giant also agreed to give GT even more time in the Mesa, Arizona sapphire facility completely rent-free. Apple has previously stated that it intends to repurpose that facility once the sapphire debacle is over.
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Apple is right to be generous here. Whatever the management issues at GTA, Apple was the senior partner here and mismanaged the relationship from the outset. The comment “put your big trousers on” is the sort of thing that you might expect a middle manager in a big American corporation to say – but we don’t judge Apple by the standards set by others. We expect more.
This is a wake-up lesson for Tim Cook. Apple’s growth means they suck in all types of people – not all who will last the distance with Apple. A more senior, sensible, experienced and consensus-seeking manager would have known that GTA were out of their depth and put a manager into the business to help them achieve what Apple wanted. Instead Apple adopted an adversarial position from the outset – and ended up with a lot of egg on their face.
The world’s favourite corporation is expected to behave impeccably at all times. That is a big ask, but if we, and Apple, don’t hold the corporation to the highest standards they will eventually succumb to ordinariness.
None of us want that…
“We don’t judge Apple by the standards set by others” & “world’s favourite corporation is expected to behave impeccably at all times”. With comments like that you would seriously think Apple where a charity.
Apple are a corporation – their standards are no different to any other corporation and neither do they impeccably behave at all times either. They are in it to make money and they do so better than any other corporation on the planet. They are geniuses at making you and I think that what they do is for our benefit.
Do you think Apple made the iMac thinner (and kept the price the same) out of kindness or did they do it so that they saved on manufacturing costs (AND making more money by charging £65 for a Superdrive which they took out of the iMac anyway).
Do you think Apple introduced the lightning cable to REALLY save you a fraction a second on day, or did they do it so that you couldn’t just use any old lead and had to give Apple £35 for a replacement if it broke?
Do you think Apple offer their free Genius Bar service out of the goodness of their heart, or do think that just perhaps they have factored in the associated costs of after sales services in the premium price of their products?
Just because a company makes more profit and turns over more money doesn’t mean they are perfect. Instead what it shows is that Apple, more than any other business are the greatest marketeers on the planet. Strip away their public persona and they are still, after all, a corporation like every other.