4 ms·

Vertical integration; not a new concept historically speaking but perhaps new in the tech/bay area bubble.

• ghaff 5y ago
  It was of course the norm to an extreme (even more so than Apple today) with minicomputer, mainframe, and high performance computing companies through about the 1980s. We're just seeing a mild reversal of the horizontal integration that companies like Intel and Microsoft brought about.
• zaphirplane 5y ago
  Owning the Vertical integration was historically IMHO out of favour because the the cost and efficiency See IBM, Solaris and hp big iron. Even car makers would source various parts from other smaller companies
  • bombcar 5y ago
    Owning the chain when it can distinguish you is valuable; but if the parts you need are commodities AND you are not the majority of the market, it may not be as worthwhile. Apple making cloned x86 chips probably wouldn’t have been worth it, for example.
• classichasclass 5y ago
  That was Commodore. Remember they owned MOS. The VIC-20 and 64 couldn't have existed as cheaply as they did without that.