Remember when Apple was going to change the world?

Kirk McElhearn:

In Apple’s press release, CEO Tim Cook is quoted as saying:

“We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.”

At the same time, Apple is sitting on $178 billion, much of it sequestered in offshore tax-shielded trusts.

With all this money, Apple could do something better than develop a new iPhone. I’m reminded of the famous question that Steve Jobs asked Pepsi CEO John Sculley in the 1980s, in order to convince Sculley to join the company:

“Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?”

This is solid food for thought. There’s no doubt that Apple continues to change the world. The question is, is Apple selling sugared water? Or is Apple bringing change for the better?

On the surface, Apple is just like any other business, building products and a top brand with the hope of making money. And they’ve certainly succeeded, on a massive scale.

Kirk asks, “Remember when Apple was going to change the world?”

Apple continues to change the world, again and again. As a young company, Apple worked out how to make personal computers easy to use. They took the PC market on another crazy ride when Steve Jobs returned, bringing out the colorful iBook and iMac. They then took on music, bringing the iPod to the market. They disrupted the smart phone market with the iPhone, added another big change with the iPad. Apple recently introduced Apple Pay which has the potential to disrupt the payment business. In April, we’ll see the start of another wave with Apple Watch.

Apple has changed the world, there’s no question about that. But is it all sugar water?

I get Kirk’s question. There’s no doubt that Apple is in business mode, in product design mode. They are not pouring money into solving problems in the same manner as Bill Gates, who takes on malaria, clean water, real human problems. But Apple is behaving in a way appropriate for a publicly held business. They are making decisions to benefit their shareholders.

As businesses go, they chart a pretty noble course. From Apple’s environmental responsibility page:

We continue to lead the industry in reducing or eliminating environmentally harmful substances, and we’re continually striving to make our products the cleanest and safest they can be.

How many companies care enough about the environmental impact of their products to put in the kind of effort Apple has put in to make their products safer?

How about Tim Cook continuing to speak out about gay rights and racism? How many CEOs stand up to shareholders when pressed for short term gain versus doing what’s best?

I think Kirk’s post is worth a read. And it certainly is fair for shareholders to ask what Apple is doing with their money. But I don’t think Apple is selling sugar water. To me, that’s not a fair comparison.