ComputerWorld's Seth Weintraub has compiled some notes from today's Apple shareholder meeting that are quite interesting.
On the iPhone:
At the meeting, investors passed a shareholder proposal urging the company to allow investors to have an advisory vote each year on executive compensation
Apple has no plans to buy back stock
Tim Cook, Apple COO - reiterated that they passed Dell to become number one in Higher Education laptop sales.
Investors voted down another shareholder proposal for Apple to deepen its commitment to limiting its environmental impact by creating a special board committee on sustainability.
Corporate responsibility - Apple delivered a code of conduct to all of its first tier vendors that it enforces vigorously. Apple has dropped relationships due to vendors not adhering to these. It plans to expand this to lower tier vendors
A successor to Steve Jobs?
After joking that he hoped there wouldn't be a party if he was hit by a bus, Jobs said the board has put a lot of thought into the issue. His job is to make sure that anyone on the company's executive team could potentially succeed him, he said. 'We've got really good leadership at the company," Jobs said. If Steve were to leave in the near term, COO Tim cook seems like the obvious successor.
Gaming:
Apple has missed the 1000 rental movies by March 1st as promised by Jobs. This was blamed the licensing complexities at the studios. Apple said they will get there.
To read more go over to ComputerWorld's Seth Weintraub post.
- It won't have Flash for the forseeable future (as I reported earlier)
- There will be lots of applications this summer based on the SDK
- The SDK will bring gaming to the iPhone/iPod touch
- When asked if there be an iPhone blogging application? Jobs said "build one using the SDK"
- They still plan to sell 10 million in 2008.
- Apple plans to offer the iPhone in both China and India ... but declined to say when
- Unlocked iPhones are a good thing - it shows demand
- There was opportunity in business for the iPhone
- Reiterated Windows games released by EA for the Mac using Transgaming's Cider
- Apple gives game developers much needed support - World of Warcraft for instance
- iPhone/iPod Touch games with SDK would be out soon
- Has no plans to take on Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo in gaming
- Apple now has 15,000 retail store employees with an 80% retention year over year. Jobs noted that employees don't just have retail jobs, but have career paths as Creatives and Geniuses.