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I've a sneaking suspicion that Apple's vertical consolidation of the iPhone supply chain makes the company much more fragile. There are clearly lots of economie
by takinola 4y ago
I've a sneaking suspicion that Apple's vertical consolidation of the iPhone supply chain makes the company much more fragile. There are clearly lots of economies of scale by building custom silicon that's optimized for their use cases. However, if their sales drop, they become saddled with factories, product lines and lease commitments that further drag on costs and make it hard to react and change direction.
- asdff 4y agoI don't think that's such a problem for apple, since there is such a market for 3 year old products from them. iPhone 8 was effectively a product being sold for 5 straight years from apple, as the 8 and then as the second generation SE. For their computers, they also sell them for a few years past when they were cutting edge too, since there's always a market for a macbook that's a few hundred bucks cheaper and most consumers don't know what the difference between M1 or M2 might be anyhow.
- gonzo41 4y agoI tend to agree. One way to ease that pain is for apple to make itself a supplier to others rather than the supplier and consumer of it's own parts. A top of the line iPhone costs ~$500 to 1000 bucks! why not try and go after the middle of the market by licencing the chipsets and other tech so that they can then supply mid teir companies that can compete in the android space with the lure of apple chipsets and hardware.
- panick21_ 4y agoI don't think so, they can still have suppliers that carry much of the risk if they want to. They just make sure they control the IP.