Final Word from Thursday, September 13, 2018
Apple, the world's first trillion-dollar company, is ubiquitous in the CR with its gadgets, despite reporting local revenue last year of just Kč 182m. It has perfected the art of sheltering profits and also of convincing those from whom the profits are sheltered to keep buying its devices. There are few, if any, other products that inspire such a willingness on the part of consumers to discard a perfectly good device in the interest of upgrading to a better one. Apple does this mainly through innovation and marketing, but also by making new and old equipment mutually incompatible with software "enhancements." It now has a new ploy for selling even more phones and computers. It has quietly imposed a policy of not repairing any of its equipment that is older than five years. It doesn't even make the spare parts anymore. It's the chosen path to becoming the first two-trillion-dollar company, but it will leave behind many, many corpses that could otherwise be resuscitated. [ Czech Republic Inc. $1 trillion ]
Glossary of difficult words
ubiquitous - present, appearing or found everywhere;
to shelter - to protect (income) from taxation;
to discard - to get rid of (someone or something) as no longer useful or desirable;
enhancement - an increase or improvement in quality, value or extent;
ploy - a cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage;
to resuscitate - to revive (someone) from unconsciousness or apparent death.