According to latest news, Tim Cook has shown deep offence to allegation made in BBC program that stated that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) mistreats its Chinese workers, who work in sites where Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPads and iPhones are manufactured. BBC sent their undercover reporter to the outskirts of Pegatron factories, in Shanghai, where they found that workers have poor treatment, and standard working hours laws are breached by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

In an email to around 5000 staffs in UK, Jeff Willams; vice president of operations for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) said that they were deeply offended by claims that the company has, in any way broken any laws that concerned employees who work in the company setups in China. He also claimed that the BBC program, Panorama’s depiction of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s policies in the Chinese factories is far from truth.

He claims that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shared “perspective and facts” regarding human rights in advance with the BBC management, but their program clearly failed to show that in their program.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has around 1,400 workers for manufacture operations in China and they are independent enough to voice their opinions on issues, such as any security risks or mistreatment at the hands of management teams.  Williams also stated that the Chinese managerial team includes very responsible and considerate individuals.

Defending the company principles with regards to workers abroad, Williams stated that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a company that ensures safe and fair working conditions, and ascertains investigation of matters that need attention. The company also endeavors to follow transparent courses of action with regards to supplier functions.

Claims were also made by Panorama regarding use of child labor in these Chinese factories. It also claimed that illegal mines are used for tin excavation by Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) supply chain from Indonesian island of Bangka.

Williams countered saying, Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) did confirm that tin for manufacture of its products is attained from Indonesian mines.

The program also revealed that artisanal miners in tens of thousands sell tin to smelters through middlemen, who supply it to component supplier, who in turn sell it to the world. This issue is not addressed by government and the widespread corruption in supply continues unnoticed.

With regards to this, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has two choices, first, it must make sure that all supplier buy tin outside of Indonesia. Second path is staying engaged and trying to drive collective solutions.

It has also been revealed that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) made an Indonesian Tin Working Group with many technology companies to make a system to held smelters accountable.

As an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) employee since 1998, Williams assured staff that all aspects of these allegations are being investigated. He also said that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will investigate claims by BBC and they will take necessary actions. The company also assured that several steps are being taken to ascertain that overtime is prevented and no other company is doing that much for safe working and fair conditions of its employees in global factories.

It is important to mention here that the suit was initiated back in 2005 when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) provided DRM locked songs via its iTunes Music Store. The company entered into such contracts with the songs publishers that allowed it to control the use of music; the music downloaded through iTunes Store could only be listened to in a specific ecosystem.

What is interesting to note here is the fact that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was not the only company who designed such security policies; Microsoft’s Zune Store and PlayForSure had the similar policies in play. The contracts with the music publishers were so strong in nature that no company could have offered transportability for the exchange of files. For instance, it would have been a breach of contract, had Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) allowed its music files, which were downloaded from iTunes Store, to be transferred to any other medium except iPod.

This class action suit was argued before an 8 member jury board, and the board unanimously decided that the company’s security and DRM practices were nothing but a genuine improvement in the product system. As soon as the verdict came out, the company released a press statement whereby it thanked the jury for its services and applauded the decision delivered by them. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) further said that the company designed iTunes and iPods so that its customers can listen to music in the best possible way, and it has been continuously upgrading its products in order to make the customer’s experience nothing but the best.

DRM does not prevail any more, for the digital music has seen much improvement since 2005. Now, most of the stores, which offer music, provide it in a DRM free environment. However, they still use DRM in their subscription services so as to time out their services monthly.

The class action related to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was filed in a time period when the environment for digital material and music was quite silted. The situation has been changed now. And this fact was recognized by the members of the jury. Now, customers can transfer their music from one store or media to another without any restrictions being placed upon them.

Coming to the stock prices of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the company saw an increase of 2.5 percent in its stock prices as soon as the verdict came out.  On the last trading day of December 17, 2014, it started its stocks at a price of $107.12 and closed at an increased price of $109.41. The company has a total market capitalization of $623.76 billion.

Analysts see this as a way to reduce competition. This University professor further described it by adding that it is the same case with rival digital music players like Zune of Microsoft. Microsoft’s customers would also have to go through the same procedure. The point here is that all the substitutes have costs. Therefore Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s customers are locked and are unable to switch to any other music player. In short there is a very high customer switching cost.

This made Apple consumers less sensitive about price regarding the ipod devices and thus they were exposed to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s pricing campaign. However a lawsuit was eventually filed back in 2005 which continues to this day. The jurors are expected to hear the testimonies this weeks end and are expected to give a decision. The attorneys are representing their respective consumers and retailers. The consumers are as many as 8million, sellers and retailers almost 500.

These are the people which bought ipods from the 2006 to 2009 time period and were a victim of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s pricing strategy. The music simply couldn’t play when they tried to play it through another digital music player made by a competitor RealNetworks (NASDAQ:AAPL) or (RNWK). According to the Roger Noll, the university professor, itunes 7.0 were designed to block downloads by other music players, for example RealNetworks.

So that the customers were stuck with ipods and had to bear the price increase of 7.45% or $16.32 costing the customers about $195million in total. Noll calculated this data by keeping the ipod sales record and market determining factors as base. According to the Economists reports the reseller were overcharged by a huge number of $149million that is about 2.38%. If the jury convicts Apple then it would might have almost a triple of this amount under the Federal antitrust law for compensating the damages.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) on the other hand denied the charges made by Noll and declared the RealNetworks as a minor party which doesn’t exactly have much to do with the case. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) further said that Noll’s statement is unlikely there is no available evidence or proof that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) overcharged its customers in any possible way or they were stuck or locked up with ipods. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) further clarified by claiming the technological changes as a product enhancement.

According to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) it’s a routine to make changes to their products to further develop and modify them and keep them up with the latest market trends.

On Friday the FTSE closed at 6750.76 with 1% increase rate even when the Dow jones had also been traded high. According to the experts one of the main reasons of this action could be to lower the value of Yuans in the international market against Dollar and Yen. This will be increasingly helpful for the Chinese economy increase its annual exports. Moreover the Dollar had already risen 10% against the Dollar from an overvalued position since the last summers and may further fall as US economy struggles in the recovery stage.

This is because the Chinese economists want positive balance of payments for their country. This lowered interest rate will be highly appreciated by hundreds of millions of Chinese home owners who have to regularly pay mortgage in huge amounts from their salaries. The huge debts and loans by the local authorities and entrepreneurs alongside the increasing mortgage debt rate has become a huge problem for the Chinese economy.

The Central Bank of China’s officials are aware of the fact that if they reduce spending their income on other things, it will greatly help in lowering other costs. Reduced and cut in money deposits, rates will persuade them to do the same in other parts of the economy. This was earlier signaled by the British Prime Minister David Cameron as a red warning that the Global economy is on the verge of another financial crash. He said that alongside the problems of the Ebola virus and Ukrainian dispute, the fluctuating economy is another major problem.

According to the Chinese economists the estimated growth rate will be above 7% if the GDP growth continues to hold above 7%. This however has been the slowest growth for the Chinese economy in the past 5 years and the rate has been steady at 5%. However this rate of expansion is almost double to the UK’s rate of increase in the economy. The experts maintain that if China wants to keep up the development with its population it has to have a steady GDP growth rate of 6%.

According to the expert Marc Ostwald who is a strategic broker at ADM ISI, these rate cutting actions by the government can start a global economic war. He expects a harsh response from South Korea and other South Asian countries including India’s Central bank to adopt the policy of rate cutting as well. The ECB head Mario Draghi said that he also intends to adopt the cutting policy to stabilize the Euros.

Since then, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has widened its business acumen by many folds with ventures such as its internet services, mobile apps and devices, as well as several other hardware components under its belt. It is the hardware advancement into the field that has made Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s reentry into the Chinese market more probable.

A concise report, titled ‘The Information’ has been published and has several unofficial quotes from Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) officials. According to these reports, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has approached authorities in Beijing to work out the process of opening up a Chinese version of its online play store that will have thousands of applications that have Android support.

Despite these claims, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) still hasn’t succeeded in acquiring an official permit from authorities at Beijing that allow the tech giant to open up its stores in China. Some analysts have gone further to say that the company might not even get the permit in light of its harsh history with the Chinese market. In order to pass the test, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will need to cut down on a significant amount of its content that the Beijing officials find offensive and threat to their communal theories.

The free Android OS, owned by Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is being used in most local smartphone brands in China. Brands such as Xiaomi, Huawei and ZTE are a few examples. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is very aware of the importance of an expansion strategic setup in China, as every smartphone manufacturer in the market has tactical plans for developmental growth into the ever growing technological Chinese market.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s plans to make it into the Chinese market are still quite vague as both parties are still engaged to resolve difference of opinions. It seems Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will need to agree to do as the officials at Beijing demand is it has any hopes of setting up in China. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) needs the Chinese market more than otherwise.

While other smartphone manufacturers try to cast their niche in the Chinese market, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is left with no choice, but to keep a low profile in the country. However, the Android market is quite strong in China, which is some consolation to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL). This will certainly go in Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s favor to win the bid of opening app store in the Chinese market. The tech giant awaits a decision from Chinese officials and will be quite keen to set itself up in the country as soon as possible, to keep up with its strong competitors that have strong business hold in China.

According to Nadella, all three companies have a defined role in the industry of smart technologies. Nadella defined Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as king of smart devices, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) as the master of advertisement and information, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) as a company which focuses on “empowering others to build products”.

Ever since Nadella assumed office as the CEO of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the company has been able to complete its acquisition of Nokia, and also deep-rooted itself in the cloud-computing technology.

Currently, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) dominates the smart technology market over Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), however falls slightly behind Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in revenue. Responding to recent comparisons of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nadella, instead of pompously declaring Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s superiority over others, said these “three identities are actually pretty distinct”.

Talking about Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nadella said, “To me Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s very, very clear, and, in fact, I think Tim Cook did a great job of even describing that very recently where he said they sell devices and that’s what Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is all about”.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has dominated the market with its technology that is unrivalled in the world. In last quarter, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) declared historic revenue figures, claiming the top spot among the three giant companies. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose to fame with its iPhone, largely due to the introduction of the concept of an App Store, the first instance of a technology company placing all software on a digital marketplace. This same App Store has helped Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) massively with iPad sales due to its popularity, and the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iWatch due to launch next year will also build upon the same App Store to boost sales.

Coming onto Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Nadella argued that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s focus and strength lies in its strength of advertisement. Advertisement is all about discovery, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s excellent search products have only boosted ad sales. According to Nadella, if it hadn’t been for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s search tools, its ad revenue would not have soared nearly as much as it did.

But the CEO at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) did not just talk about Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). In fact, both these companies made up only a small portion of his speech. For most part, Nadella talked about Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s role in the market. In his speech, Nadella said that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) focuses on “anyone else who is in the business of actually their own creation” and that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) wished to be “the tools provider, the platform provider.”

Basically, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s focus is on selling its Windows and Office softwares. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows is the most used operating system in the world today, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office is the most commonly used software for office work.

Now, all three companies are beginning to focus on cloud computing, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) focusing on iCloud implementation on all its devices, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Drive integration with all Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) products, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office introducing cloud subscription under Nadella’s vision to expand Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and keeping in line with market competitors.