Response To The Letter

June 4, 2018

Apple Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, California 95014

Last January, JANA Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (“we” or “us”) challenged Apple Inc. (“Apple” or “you”) to give families more options to guide how children and adolescents use your devices, which we noted would benefit parents, kids and society, while also enhancing Apple’s offering to users concerned about the risks that come with today’s technology.  With today’s announcement of more dynamic options for all users including parents, Apple took a huge step in meeting that challenge.  Given that we openly discussed the shortcomings of Apple’s controls in our first letter, we want to be equally open today in commending you for your boldness and thoughtfulness in rethinking them.

We trust that Apple will be equally committed in your follow-through.  As we noted in our initial letter, mobile device technology will continue to evolve and the research around developmentally optimal usage will continue to come into sharper focus, meaning this must be an ongoing effort.  We encourage you to keep in close contact with the experts, to help them develop the public research, and to keep families publicly informed about Apple’s efforts.  Doing so will help ensure that families are best positioned to make their own informed decisions and can effectively engage with their children on this topic.  It will also help ensure that what Warren Buffett recently praised as Apple’s robust “ecosystem” remains a place in which parents and children feel empowered with the best tools to help them navigate and make the most of ever-changing technologies.

Given your exemplary history and our interaction with Apple, we are delighted but not surprised by today’s announcements.  This shows the kind of ethical leadership that we believe is an important driver of long term value.  We again thank and commend you.