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Googling isn't finding the story, so take this with a grain of salt, but as I recall there have been incidents where Apple needed so many of a specific machine,
by danudey 5y ago
Googling isn't finding the story, so take this with a grain of salt, but as I recall there have been incidents where Apple needed so many of a specific machine, made by one specific company, to set up their manufacturing, but when they couldn't get enough delivered on time they bought the company outright.
(Presumably this would help by giving them access to the IP so they could contract other factories to manufacture them as well, since Apple has the up-front cash to do it)
Again, I can't find the article so who knows if it's true, but it sounds very, very Apple to do that.
- MBCook 5y agoThat sounds very familiar. I think they might’ve done it to source the milling machines used when they switched to the unibody MacBook pros?
- discordance 5y agoA bit dated now, but still a good analysis by Horace Dediu on Apple’s machinery expenditure here: http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/16/how-much-do-apples-factories-cost/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/16/how-much-do-apples-factorie...
- throwawaymanbot 5y agoI remember Jonny Ive mentioned this and how he was proud to have designed it.
- sangnoir 5y agoThere was also a small glass/saphire company that agreed to sell exclusively to Apple, they had to innvest a lot of money to increase capacity, and in the end, Apple decided to continue using Gorilla glass, and the company went under.
- MertsA 5y agoThe CEO was charged with fraud afterwards and they undoubtedly had some contract with Apple committing to it. It would seem that the supplier lied about their capabilities. https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-06-apple-sapphire-glass-supplier-charged-with-fraud.html https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-06-apple-sapphire-glass-sup...