It could be that they are just trying to improve their negotiating position. Even if that's true, I'd wager that it is just the short-term contingency of an in

It could be that they are just trying to improve their negotiating position. Even if that's true, I'd wager that it is just the short-term contingency of an investment with a long-term view. I bet they have their eye on the end-game. When I say that, I'm thinking of the old TED Talk by Amory Lovins called "Winning the Oil Endgame". I feel like there's some parallel one could draw between peak oil and process improvements. Intel has slowed down now that it's more difficult to extract increased performance with each iteration. I'm guessing someone at Apple is thinking about where they'd like to be positioned when the well runs dry.