

Apple: where is your #AppleMoonshot? Open letter - graphenebeach

Dear Apple Leader(s),<p>As longtime users, fans and stakeholders of Apple and its products we continue to be drawn to every generation of upgrades, improvements and of course every &#x27;one more thing&#x27;.<p>While that has worked steady and delivered great results, we believe the time is NOW to take your innovation to a whole other level and truly attempt to rock our world like nobody else can.<p>At almost 2&#x2F;3rds of a Trillion Dollars (!) you are the worlds most valuable company, not to mention one of the most profitable companies in the world sitting on one of the biggest piles of cash any company has ever garnered (more than Canada, Norway and Sweden&#x27;s cash reserves combined). As things stand your profit margins will allow you to grow this ever more.<p>So dear Apple Leader(s): GIVE US YOUR MOONSHOT project that dares to take on the risk and tackle a challenge that ONLY an institution of your financial resources and brain power can. Your Research &amp; Development budget is a mere 3% of revenues, a fraction of what other companies spend (ie. Google is close to 13.5% of revenues). If you can drop $3bn on headphones &amp; music streaming, why not take some reasonable portion of your resources and go for something that has the potential to, we’ll say it, actually PARADIGM SHIFT HUMANITY. To give you a few hints we have a starter list and poll that will help you set the course:<p>- Cold Fusion
- Global Equal Health &amp; Care
- Global Equal Education
- Quantum Computing
- Anti-Gravity
- Teleportation
- Holography<p>Go for the impossible, do the audacious and pursue a dream of mankind.<p>We appreciate you not only pursuing the great but also considering the Moonshots for the greater benefit of our species.<p>Yours truly,
Elion, Lacy, Herve &amp; Haydee
SILICON BEACH, Playa Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
September 16, 2014<p>#AppleMoonshot Poll:<p>1. Would you like to see Apple pursue a Moonshot Project?
2. If yes, what do you think the Moonshot project should be?
======
anigbrowl
0: How do we know it isn't doing so already 8-O

1\. Seriously, yes.

2: Smart dust, for slow but wholly distributed computing. So that one day you
will be able to say 'it's in the cloud' and mean it literally. That said,
holography might be their best fit right now.

I was very surprised to see that the firm only spends 3% of revenue on R&D,
and further surprised to discover that this is an increase from a previous
long-standing sum of 2%.

------
pixeloution
Companies have a LEGAL obligation to their shareholders to pursue profits, and
to be fiscally responsible in that regard. Using a "real portion" of cash to
attempt to do things not related to making money would result in a very large
class action suit.

Its a nice thought, but its not how publicly held corporations work; they have
a responsibility to shareholders.

~~~
anigbrowl
Going for a 'moonshot' is not incompatible with pursuing the interests of
shareholders, as long as the potential payout is commensurate with the
elevated risk. I don't see IBM being hit with class action lawsuits despite
the highly speculative nature of some IBM research.

A for 'a LEGAL obligation to their shareholders to pursue profits,' this is a
myth, and putting the word 'legal' in capitals doesn't enhance your argument.
Officers of a company have a fiduciary duty to the corporation, and
shareholders have a claim on the profits of the corporation, but no law
requires that a corporation devote itself to profit above all else - and for
good reason, since otherwise activist shareholders might demand that Apple
cease the relatively uncertain business of making pretty computers and offer
financial services instead, since finance is the single most profitable sector
of the US economy.

As a shareholder, you have the right to vote in the election of directors to
the board (let's skip over all the differently nuanced varieties of stock or
we'll be here all day), and _that 's it_. If you still don't like what the
corporation is doing then you have a simple option: sell your shares and
invest your money elsewhere.

The corporation's _purpose_ is stated in its articles of incorporation. In
Apple's case (and most companies are similar in this respect) it is as
follows:

 _The purpose of this corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity
for which a corporation may be organized under the General Corporation Law of
California other than the banking business, the trust company business or the
practice of a profession permitted to be incorporated by the California
Corporations Code._

Now, the idea of the obligation to maximize shareholder value is often tied to
an old legal case, _Dodge v. Ford Motor Company_ , but nowadays most courts
look to _Shlensky v. Wrigley_ in which the court held that directors are
obliged only to do whatever they consider to be in the best interests of 'the
corporation which they serve.'

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Company](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Company)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlensky_v_Wrigley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlensky_v_Wrigley)

You might like to read further on the topic from Professor Lynn Stout, who is
professor of corporate law at Cornell University and has written a whole book
on this topic - summarized at the link below, which also includes a link to
the content in pdf form.

[https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2012/06/26/the-
shareho...](https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2012/06/26/the-shareholder-
value-myth/)

------
herve76
1\. Yes of course, they should pursue at least one crazy good moonshot.

2\. Holography + 1

------
hlmstuart
1\. YES! Definitely would love to see #AppleMoonshot

