4 ms·

Lotsa downvotes on that guy. So who's got better DNA and why? Genuinely curious.

ajross 10y ago
Pretty sure the takeaway is that (as above, Tesla excluded) Silicon Valley firms don't have the DNA to do heavy industrial manufacturing.
- maerF0x0 10y ago
  Yeah, in terms of the best Auto/Tech pairing I would say ford/Microsoft is the highest profile?
- bdamm 10y ago
  Your main point is valid in the contemporary sense, but don't forget that the Silicon Valley is called Silicon because it used to be the global fab hotspot. While manufacturing chips, boards, accessories, computers, hard drives, card readers, and mainframe racks isn't quite the same as cars, there's plenty of manufacturing know-how in the Silicon Valley. Does Apple have that kind of know-how, and does it make sense for them to acquire it? Not so clear.
  - mark_edward 10y ago
    But almost all of that left SV decades ago.
    - smaddox 10y ago
      And yet, the companies that still exist from that time still have major (typically non-manufacturing) presence in SV.
- Scramblejams 10y ago
  I'm not sure they don't, but I'll grant you that it's open to debate. Nobody does supply chain better than Apple, though, and that's gotta be worth something. If they wanted to Foxconn it, I would think a company like Kia or Hyundai would be a logical partner for them to get into the business. Apple designs it with the help of their manufacturing expertise and imposes their usual tyrannical quality requirements (maybe with the help of some employees they could score from Honda or Toyota to get the requisite quality levels), their Korean partner produces it and everybody's happy.
  - ajross 10y ago
    And what would the benefit be to Kia or Hyundai. These firms have already entered the market chasing Toyota and GM. They have their margin structure baked in already. Moving to low-margin/high-volume contract work would cost them a ton of money. It's the same reason that, say, Intel doesn't (can't) do consumer logic fabrication to compete with TSMC or Samsung. They have the technical know-how, but their fab capacity is already filled with Xeons that fetch like 4x the margin.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    Kia and Hyundai are already comparable to Honda and Toyota on quality measures.
RivieraKid 10y ago
The concept of a "company DNA" is mostly a buzzword with a fuzzy meaning and should be avoided when trying to analyze and reason about things.

Pretty sure the takeaway is that (as above, Tesla excluded) Silicon Valley firms don't have the DNA to do heavy industrial manufacturing.

maerF0x0 10y ago
Yeah, in terms of the best Auto/Tech pairing I would say ford/Microsoft is the highest profile?
bdamm 10y ago
Your main point is valid in the contemporary sense, but don't forget that the Silicon Valley is called Silicon because it used to be the global fab hotspot. While manufacturing chips, boards, accessories, computers, hard drives, card readers, and mainframe racks isn't quite the same as cars, there's plenty of manufacturing know-how in the Silicon Valley. Does Apple have that kind of know-how, and does it make sense for them to acquire it? Not so clear.
- mark_edward 10y ago
  But almost all of that left SV decades ago.
  - smaddox 10y ago
    And yet, the companies that still exist from that time still have major (typically non-manufacturing) presence in SV.
Scramblejams 10y ago
I'm not sure they don't, but I'll grant you that it's open to debate. Nobody does supply chain better than Apple, though, and that's gotta be worth something. If they wanted to Foxconn it, I would think a company like Kia or Hyundai would be a logical partner for them to get into the business. Apple designs it with the help of their manufacturing expertise and imposes their usual tyrannical quality requirements (maybe with the help of some employees they could score from Honda or Toyota to get the requisite quality levels), their Korean partner produces it and everybody's happy.
- ajross 10y ago
  And what would the benefit be to Kia or Hyundai. These firms have already entered the market chasing Toyota and GM. They have their margin structure baked in already. Moving to low-margin/high-volume contract work would cost them a ton of money. It's the same reason that, say, Intel doesn't (can't) do consumer logic fabrication to compete with TSMC or Samsung. They have the technical know-how, but their fab capacity is already filled with Xeons that fetch like 4x the margin.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Kia and Hyundai are already comparable to Honda and Toyota on quality measures.

RivieraKid 10y ago

The concept of a "company DNA" is mostly a buzzword with a fuzzy meaning and should be avoided when trying to analyze and reason about things.