Apple: Transgender bathrooms instead of new Macs?

One of the things I liked best about Steve Jobs was that he more or less kept Apple out of partisan politics. Oh sure, everybody knew that Jobs himself was a liberal in terms of politics, but he never used Apple as a platform to push a partisan political agenda.

Steve Jobs knew quite well that people with all different kinds of politics were Apple customers, so he steered the company away from getting directly involved in politics. This had the beneficial effect of preventing people from resenting Apple on the basis of partisan politics.

Tim Cook, on the other hand, seems completely unable to follow in Jobs’ footsteps when it comes to using Apple as a political platform. Cook has gone full SJW [social justice warrior] and seems unable to keep his politics to himself while acting in the role of Apple’s CEO.

The latest example of this is Apple’s statement about transgender bathrooms, according to MacRumors:

”Apple believes everyone deserves a chance to thrive in an environment free from stigma and discrimination. We support efforts toward greater acceptance, not less, and we strongly believe that transgender students should be treated as equals. We disagree with any effort to limit or rescind their rights and protections.”

More at MacRumors

Suffice to say that the issue of transgenders in bathrooms and locker rooms has proven to be one of those hot-button social issues that has divided these United States. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it’s something that is properly dealt with by individual citizens participating in the political process not through a large multi-national company pushing just one side of the issue.

How about updating the Mac, Apple?

I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw that Apple had made a statement like that about transgender bathrooms when the company can’t even seem to keep its Mac computers updated regularly.

As I write this post, take note of the last time each of these Macs was updated according to the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide:

iMac – 499 days (October 2015)

MacBook Air – 717 days (March 2015)

Mac mini – 861 days (October 2014)

Mac Pro – 1162 days (December 2013)

As you can see from this list, the Mac has become a second rate product inside of Apple. The company simply cannot be bothered regularly updating the Mac, despite the fact that it is still a very important product for many of Apple’s customers.

It’s not as if Apple is some startup company, living on a shoestring budget. As I write this post the company has around $250 billion dollars and can easily afford to give the Mac more resources, time and energy. Heck, Apple has more money than a lot of countries on the planet!

But instead of updating the Mac, Tim Cook and the rest of his executives are spending their time worrying about transgender bathrooms. Is that really the proper thing to focus on for a business like Apple?

Frankly, it would be easier to ignore the shrill left-wing politics of Apple if the company could at least keep its computers updated. But Apple seems to prefer to forget the Mac in favor of meddling in whatever political issue happens to be currently on the media’s radar.

Ultimately I think ignoring the Mac is going to cost Apple some of its customers. I see more and more evidence of this on various Apple sites as people grow tired of waiting for updates to the Mac. And once a customer leaves the Mac behind, it becomes easier for them to consider dumping their iPhones and iPads too.

Enough with the politics, Apple

It’s really time for Apple to focus back on its business, and leave the political commentary to the usual assortment of pundits on the left and right. Apple is a business, not a political party or an activist group.

Looking ahead, I have no doubt that the iPhone 8 will be huge and Apple will sell a zillion of them. The company will rake in billions of dollars in profit, and many people will let the new iPhone’s success blind them to the potential danger of Apple’s constant meddling in politics.

When a company overtly pushes a political agenda like Apple has been doing, some of its customers will eventually revolt and move to products made by other companies. Apple may be riding very high right now as a company, but eventually the political chickens are going to come home to roost.

Steve Jobs knew what he was doing when he kept Apple out of politics.

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