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I wouldn’t put Apple in the same category. They’ll never sell chips except as part of their vertically integrated systems.
by adamcstephens 6y ago
I wouldn’t put Apple in the same category. They’ll never sell chips except as part of their vertically integrated systems.
- ISL 6y agoEven if they remain vertically-integrated, if they can sell an Apple datacenter blade or produce bespoke architectures for major cloud providers, the market is large -- Apple-scale.
- gh02t 6y agoIt would be interesting to see how that would work and what sort of unique features Apple would offer in a proper enterprise product, but I'm struggling to imagine Apple returning to that market in earnest. Even Xserve was not really about being a server in its own right so much as it was for providing infrastructure to support their desktops.
- dkjaudyeqooe 6y agoApple is a consumer electronics company and they keep reiterating that. Their whole strategy is to be an island unto themselves where they can maintain high gross margins and squeeze their suppliers. They're not interested in competing on other people's terms in commoditized markets. They sell luxury goods.
- amelius 6y ago> They sell luxury goods. Apple owns like half of the consumer market, everybody and their mother has Apple hardware, so not sure how you would call that "luxury goods".
- dkjaudyeqooe 6y agoI'm not sure about your 'half' figures, but that's how Apple positions itself. An iPhone is a status symbol as much as a phone. Macs are too, but to a much lesser degree. Also their entire line up is not luxurious, but some items are nakedly luxury items like the some of the watches. One of the reasons for Apple's success is that it's managed to pull off mass-market luxury better than anyone else. Arguably, luxury items doesn't have to be exclusive, just overpriced.
- wmf 6y agoApple passed 50% market share (sales, not installed base) in the US and has something like 80% share among people under 20 years old.
- adamcstephens 6y agoApple owns half of the smartphone market in the US. In most other metrics they are well below half.
- jlawer 6y agoCloud providers want dependable suppliers with low costs, openness with design, integration with other suppliers and long term roadmaps and support. Outside dependability, Apple is not good on any of the other aspects. Apple run a high margin business, and their processes reflect that. Apple are a high margin business. I highly doubt they want to harm their gross margin, but its possible. Apple however have not been that successful co-designing.... well, anything. They are highly opinionated that they are correct and this has typically lead to them blazing new trails, but has also lead to mis-steps. For bespoke systems, that would rely on building what the customer asks for. Apple's generally isn't great with working with outside suppliers, generally trying to bring the work inside. Finally this would require apple to tie their hands (in the same way microsoft has) with compatibility to provide the long term support that the vendors require. Apple would never become the suppliers the cloud providers want. The only way they would be chosen is if the product is significantly better then what otherwise exists. I can easily see Apple leapfrogging incumbent server vendors for performance or such for a short term, but I expect the others will catch up very quickly. Cloud hardware is already well integrated by companies motivated to eek out every little bit of performance (see facebook and the OCP). Despite being significantly more different from an engineering perspective, I actually think manufacturing cars is more similar from a business perspective for Apple.
- colinmhayes 6y agoApple sells luxury goods. They don't seem interested in the datacenter market. Plus it seems like all the cloud companies are designing their own ARM chips, I doubt they want apple's.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y agoI was speaking here mainly for a consumer perspective buying complete systems. For me, my personal computers such as my laptop and/or desktop will likely contain a CPU made by Apple(if I buy a Mac) or Intel/AMD(if I buy a PC). Right now for laptops, Apple is blowing away the competition, especially Intel. I would love for Intel to get back in the game so I have more choices.