1. At will: where you can be fired for any reason whether petty or not; as long as it is lawful.
2. Contractual employment: where someone is employed for a stated duration of time and if fired, they are obligated to the rest of any economic funds promised in the contract.
In this case, the Apple employee falls under the "at will" category. So by law, Apple's firing of the employee was not unlawful as it is not a discriminatory firing (gender, race, sex, social class) of any sort.
In my opinion, I feel the firing of the Apple employee was right and necessary. Apple's main contributor to their success is the value of their brand. So if I were Apple CEO, anything that degrades the value of Apple's brand, which in my opinion they've worked so hard to obtain, should be punished.
As a Mac user, Apple's quality in products is one off! This might be a biased opinion but, this firing just shows the extreme care Apple take's in preserving their brand value. The link below is a testament to Apple's brand value:
