Even though Samir Becic is an avid Apple user, there’s one thing he’d like to change. The Bosnian-born American has no dedicated language/keyboard to select when he types in his native tongue of Bosnian. While seemingly benign, the lack of a Bosnian language/keyboard is triggering for some people in the region who feel excluded from representation—especially considering the neighboring countries of Croatia and Serbia each have dedicated languages/keyboards.
It is important to note that this is not a small community; Bosnians are spread all over the world, from America to Australia to all across Europe. Surely Apple will realize that adding support for a language spoken by millions of people all across the globe- many of whom are loyal Apple customers and/or employees- is an important step towards winning future customers.
An open letter to @Apple CEO @tim_cook and his team. While seemingly benign, the lack of a Bosnian language on Apple products is triggering for many people in the Balkan region (especially Bosnia) who feel excluded from representation. https://t.co/vTtAP3fAio
— Samir Becic (@SamirBecic) June 14, 2022
In an effort to include Bosnian language support in iOS, Samir wrote a letter to Tim Cook and the entire Apple executive team in June 2022. In the letter, he asked them to consider adding a keyboard for his native language. While Apple noted that they had opened a case about implementing the Bosnian language into their products in their first response, they also assured Samir that they would resolve this request in a timely manner. It was noted that further correspondence should be expected- and now Samir has gotten a follow-up letter!
For almost a century, Bosnians/Bosniaks were not allowed to designate themselves as such. The discrimination against the Bosnian people and their language has no place in the 21st century. Thank you, Apple CEO @tim_cook for understanding the historical context of this request.
— Samir Becic (@SamirBecic) August 30, 2022
In this second letter, which came in a timely manner, gave directions on the best way to find a solution to incorporating the Bosnian language into their products. Samir is confident that they are on the right track towards actionable change with regard to including the Bosnian language as an option on their products.
Apple, a company that has revolutionized the way we use technology and interact with our peers digitally, plays an important role in our daily lives and in the corporate world. In fact, Apple made Health Fitness Revolution’s list of Top 10 Fittest Fortune 100 companies to work for and its CEO Tim Cook was named one of the Fittest Tech Executives in 2017! Health Fitness Revolution founder Samir Becic was impressed with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s morning fitness routine, which he found to be one of the most comprehensive of any of the Fortune 500 CEOs.
Apple possesses a unique position in the corporate world because of its prioritization of people over profits. Samir is hopeful that his open letter asking for more inclusion will generate positive change for millions of users.
