The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 8 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
McGee: Tim Cook Pledged $275B in Apple Investment to China
“They do their own supply chain study, sort of Apple internally, and realize that they're investing fifty-five billion dollars a year into Chinese factories, and once they've sort of established this, and they realize, like, how much that could mean to local an…”
McGee: Apple Funded Supply Ecosystem That Powered Huawei and Xiaomi
“Apple trained all of their suppliers, and then the suppliers in turn supplied Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo. So that's why Nokia couldn't keep up. It's that China had this amazing ecosystem built for the smartphone industry, all paid for by Apple.”
McGee: Jony Ive and OpenAI's AI Device Will Just Become an iPhone App
“I think it becomes an iPhone app.”
McGee: Apple Moved to China for Cheap Labor, Not Tech Competence
“What attracted Apple to move to China in the 2000 was not tech competence. It was just abundant labor, the cost of that labor and an industrial policy that was very welcoming to foreign direct investment.”
McGee: China Lacked Tech Capabilities Until Apple Built Them
“The tech capabilities aren't there. Apple builds them.”
McGee: Chinese Competitors, Not Apple Alone, Killed Nokia
“Market share wise, the iPhone has never been more than 20% of the global market. So who has more than 20% that can actually take on Nokia? It's the Chinese competitors. They have 55% market share, right? So you couple that with Apple, couple that with Samsung,…”
McGee: Apple's China Investment from 2007 to 2025 Exceeds $800B
“If you just sort of took 22% of revenue, which is what fifty five billion was in that year. And just sort of use that as a sort of, you know, back of the envelope math, back to 2007, the birth of the iPhone, and you took it all the way to 2025, you'd get above…”
McGee: Apple and Nokia Employees Regularly Crossed into Each Other's Factory Lines
“Like that's not supposed to be the case, but I would talk to Apple people who'd been to the Nokia line. I would talk to Nokia people who'd been to the Apple line. Like that's not supposed to happen. And yet it comes up all the time in anecdotes.”