In a first in quite some time, Apple suffered from a rather troubled week.
Over the past several days, Apple was forced to deal with some problems. The company has been quietly scrubbing the App Store of what has been called “hundreds of thousands” of apps that are delivering little to no value to users. Additionally, the company’s fight with chipmaker Qualcomm intensified this week. And Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, watched his employee approval rating fall. But in a bit of bittersweet news for Apple, the company’s e-book troubles are being put to rest.
Overall, it wasn’t the best of weeks for Apple (AAPL). But even so, there are no signs of business troubles in Cupertino, so it wasn’t all bad.
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Here’s our look at the biggest Apple news from the past week:
This is Coins2Day ’s weekly roundup of the biggest Apple news this week. To see last week’s roundup, click here.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook’s employee ranking is down for 2017. In a new study from Glassdoor, Cook took the 53rd slot in a ranking of the world’s top CEOs by employee opinion. Cook earned a 93% approval rating in the study. That’s down from a 96% approval rating last year, when he took the eighth spot in the study. Glassdoor didn’t say why Cook’s approval rating fell year over year, but he’s still far ahead of most chief executives: the average CEO approval rating is 67%.
- Apple opened a new front in its battle against Qualcomm this week, saying the chip-maker shouldn’t get a cut on every iPhone it sells. Qualcomm has argued that it should get a license on each iPhone sold, and has been accused by Apple of withholding $1 billion in rebates. The companies are battling the case in a U.S. Federal court.
- Good news if you have an Apple e-book credit: you can cash it in. Bad news if you have an Apple e-book credit: you have practically no time to do it. Those who are eligible for a credit received emails this week informing them that they would need to cash in their rebates by Saturday at 11:59 p.m. PT. That means you have just hours to get your credit. The credit is the result of Apple’s protracted battle over alleged e-book price-fixing between 2010 and 2012. Apple was ordered last year to pay $400 million in refunds to those affected by its e-book pricing.
- If you’re looking to save a few bucks on Apple Music, it’s now possible. Apple has quietly added an annual Apple Music subscription to the service for $99. That’s a $21 savings on the standard $9.99-a-month option. It’s a bit buried, however, so click here to find out how to access the annual Apple Music subscription.
- Apple has been quietly removing “hundreds of thousands” of useless apps from its App Store over the past year, according to TechCrunch. Apple has also updated its App Store guidelines to ban apps that use a “commercialized template or app generation service.” The move could reduce the chances of spam or scam apps making their way into the App Store.
One more thing… An unidentified bidder this week bought an original—and working—Apple I computer for $355,500 at a Christie’s New York City auction. The Apple I, which debuted in 1976, is the company’s first computer.