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Apple Loop: Dying For Your iPhone, Google Infects iOS, Motorola Vs Apple

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Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop covers the moral issues around modern smartphone manufacturing, a neutered Apple Watch, Jony Ive's design ethos (and a clash with Motorola), Apple Car thoughts, Google Play Music and Material Design on iOS, the Supermodel and the watch, and Apple's trillion dollar potential.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read our weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

Who Is Dying For Your iPhone?

Terence Eden has sat down to think about the issue of responsibility in the manufacturing of consumer electronics, specifically Apple's smartphone, with the question "Who made your iPhone?" It's a topic that continues to come up regularly, but it's been placed in sharp relief with Apple's blowout Q1 levels of revenue and profit.

Eden's thoughts are based around a talk given by Dr Jenny Chan in Oxford earlier this week on her upcoming book Dying for an iPhone: The Hidden Struggle of China’s Workers. The four main routes of change discussed are agitating for change, conflict minerals, union pressure, and pension funds:

We outsource our morality to pension funds. We ask them to provide the best possible return on investment, and we close our eyes to how they do it. Perhaps we should be lobbying teachers - and our own pension fund managers - to insist that Apple and Foxconn behave more ethically. Would it lead to a lower ROI to pay people a living wage? Maybe. Or would a more generous attitude pay dividends by increasing sales?

Eden's thoughts on the issue are online.

The Apple Watch Is Neutered

Lots of discussion about the Apple Watch this week, starting in the Wall Street Journal, over the functionality that will be available in Tim Cook's wearable when it launches in April. The contention is a simple one - because not everything is going to be ready for the April launch, the digital timepiece will launch with a limited feature set that is potentially less functional than the package demonstrated on stage in September (Forbes' Parmy Olsen goes into more details on these limited functions here).

That might create a problem in positioning the watch. Can Apple answer the simple question of "what is this for?" Mike Beasley writes:

What the team eventually settled on was the product hitting store shelves in April. It doesn’t boast as many impressive health-focused features as originally planned, and attempts to fill in the gaps by offering other attractions, such as heartbeat-based messaging and communication tools. Some of the simpler health features also made it into the finished product.

The report’s sources said that while these features were cut during the development of the first-gen model for a reason, there’s a possibility they could appear in later versions.

And there's the key phrase... 'appear in later versions'. I think Apple is going to get a 'free spin' with its first-generation watch, much as it did with the first iPhone. That phone was barely capable of matching a feature phone and everybody scoffed, yet through time and iteration Apple mastered the category.

So I'm relaxed about the Apple Watch. It's not going to change the world, but like Microsoft of old, watch out for the third iteration.

The 'Rational' And 'Inevitable' Jony Ive

Ian Parker and the New Yorker have written up a fascinating profile of Apple's Chief Designer Jony Ive (although I am bound by tradition to give him his full title of 'Sir Jonathan Paul Ive, Blue Peter (Gold), KBE RDI HonFREng'). It's a piece that has required a lot of access to be offered by Apple, so bear that in mind, but it still represents a significant media spotlight on Ive, Apple's design process, and the history of the company.

The story starts, as all good Apple stories do, with the return of the prodigal son:

Jobs and Ive had an intense first meeting. Ive said, “I can’t really remember that happening really ever before, meeting somebody when it’s just like that”—he snapped his fingers. “It was the most bizarre thing, where we were both perhaps a little—a little bit odd. We weren’t used to clicking.”

Assuming the worst, Ive had a resignation letter in his pocket. Indeed, Jobs’s initial instinct had been to hire a new designer...

Jobs visited the design studio and, as Ive recalled it, said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?” This was a partial compliment. Jobs could see that the studio’s work had value, even if Ive could be faulted for not communicating its worth to the company. During the visit, Ive said, Jobs “became more and more confident, and got really excited about our ability to work together.” That day, according to Ive, they started collaborating on what became the iMac.

Settle in for a long read, it will be worth it. But if you're short of time, The Guardian has found 23 Ive gems that you really must be aware of.

The Fight To Design Your Smartphone

An interesting spat between Ive and Motorola president Rick Osterloh has been reported by the BBC. While Jony Ive believes that the designer should control everything about a smartphone, Osterloh is proud to involve consumers with the Moto Maker customisation program.

Ive didn't specifically name Motorola, but the deduction is an easy one:

"Their value proposition was, 'Make it whatever you want. You can choose whatever colour you want,'" Sir Jonathan is quoted as saying. "And I believe that's abdicating your responsibility as a designer."

And on the Motorola side of things:

Mr Osterloh of the scheme: "Our belief is that the end user should be directly involved in the process of designing products. We're making the entire product line accessible. And frankly, we're taking a directly opposite approach to them [Apple]..."

We do see a real dichotomy in this marketplace, where you've got people like Apple making so much money and charging such outrageous prices. We think that's not the future.

Both sides have a valid point in the argument, but with very little common ground it's hard to see how they could even agree to disagree.

A Romance Of Many Wheels

The stories around Apple's automotive ambitions have continued since last week's reveal that Tim Cook had a team working on... well... something with wheels. With no confirmation from Cupertino, the media are left to speculate about the ultimate plans. Of course there's one other 'cutting edge' car company out there. Forbes Matt Hickey wonders if Apple and Tesla are dancing a distant tango towards a romance:

The smarties at Apple know an opportunity when they see one; Tesla is the kind of thing that is on everyone’s radar. It’d be insane to think that Tim Cook and his top minds aren’t very much aware of how Tesla’s operating and what an opportunity it represents.
 Tesla’s been doing what it does for a few years now and doing it quite well.

As for an actual purchase of Tesla by Apple, Jason Calacanis brings a bucket of smart points to the table. Here are two:

Apple’s Tim Cook very much wants to pursue the kind of “our-shoring” (I made that word up), that Elon has mastered. In fact, Apple wants to build an all-renewable energy production facility in Mesa, AZ (anyone know the latest on that?), and they are building the Mac Pro (the sexy black mini-cylinder) at their Texas facility.

Tim Cook is obsessed with renewable energy, so much so that he told climate deniers to not hold Apple stock, and he is investing $850m to build a giant solar farm to power Apple’s new HQ.

So, is Cook's next 'one more thing' going to be... Elon Musk?

Google Play Music Infects iOS With Material Design

Google continues to work on its cross-platform strategy of bringing Material Design to the iOS ecosystem and ignoring all of the usability guides and best practices in UI recommended by Apple. The next step is an update to the subscription music locker and download service Google Play Music, which has been updated for the platform (reports 9to5 Google)

This latest version includes the Material Design interface for the first time in this app, as well as a specific iPad optimised layout for users of Apple's tablet.

And On The Supermodel, We Find A Super Watch

The slow burn to promote the Apple Watch in areas that aren't populated by the geekerati continues, as SELF magazine puts the wearable on the cover... with a bit of help from the wrist of supermodel Candice Swanepoel (reports Apple Insider). Details on the watch are little more than 'it does fitness tracking' but the point here is that Apple is promoting the watch as a desirable fashion item that is seen with the It crowd, not the I.T. Crowd in the technical department.

And Finally...

Apple's financial numbers are mind-boggling, and many observers believe that Cupertino is heading towards a $1 trillion dollar market cap. Chuck Jones takes a look at that impossibly successful number to find out Apple's route to the 'T' and how long it could take. How will Cook mix the ingredients of increasing profits to earnings, an increase in EPS compared to PE, and lowering the share count? And is it enough?

Overall it looks challenging for Apple’s to get to a $1 trillion market cap in the next year and probably two unless the company can substantially increase its revenue and earnings. 2017 is probably the earliest to expect the shares to cross this threshold.

Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read hereor this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, also available on Forbes.

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