5 ms·

Peanuts? They make 4$ in pure profit per cable. That means billions.

stouset 4y ago
Apple reported $65.78Bn in revenue from iPhone sales in Q4 2022. Their entire “wearable / home / accessories” revenue was $13.5Bn. That includes the wildly successful Apple Watch as well as the HomePod and Apple TV. All of which sell for hundreds of dollars. That’s to say nothing of first-party accessories like cables that Apple sells directly and makes 100% of the revenue on. Third parties would have to sell ~200 MFi-licensed cables for every single disgruntled iPhone user who jumps ship for Android or decides to sit out an upgrade cycle. It’s even worse if you factor in the halo of other purchases people make after buying a new phone. You are absolutely out of your mind if you think Apple has any desire to cannibalize iPhone sales for $4 of licensing revenue on third-party cables. This isn’t even a rounding error in Apple’s quarterly financials.
- SR2Z 4y ago
  It would not be unreasonable to say that cables might make up $1B of that $13.5B - and given how stupidly profitable this scheme is, it's definitely not a "rounding error." A billion dollars is a billion dollars.
  - stouset 4y ago
    Okay, so let’s agree for the sake of argument that cables make up $1bn of Apple revenue. What share of that is MFi cables in general? And what share of that is hypothetical MFi USB-C cables? At $4 a pop, you’re talking 125 million licensed third-party USB-C cables. Per quarter. That seems like an absurdly high number to me given the fact that most people will buy first-party cables. And hell, most people I know still use USB-A to Lightning cables to charge their phones at excruciatingly slow speeds. But sure. Fine. Half a billion licensed third party USB-C cables per year. Half a billion in revenue over a holiday quarter. To put some share of your $200Bn/yr cash cow at risk? Plus risking the downstream halo purchases of other highly-profitable products in the ecosystem, including first-party cables? You. Are. Out. Of. Your. Mind. If this rumor is true, there’s undoubtedly a plausible business reason. Cannibalizing their most popular product to make pocket change on licensing fees does not even pass a basic smell test.

Apple reported $65.78Bn in revenue from iPhone sales in Q4 2022. Their entire “wearable / home / accessories” revenue was $13.5Bn. That includes the wildly successful Apple Watch as well as the HomePod and Apple TV. All of which sell for hundreds of dollars. That’s to say nothing of first-party accessories like cables that Apple sells directly and makes 100% of the revenue on. Third parties would have to sell ~200 MFi-licensed cables for every single disgruntled iPhone user who jumps ship for Android or decides to sit out an upgrade cycle. It’s even worse if you factor in the halo of other purchases people make after buying a new phone. You are absolutely out of your mind if you think Apple has any desire to cannibalize iPhone sales for $4 of licensing revenue on third-party cables. This isn’t even a rounding error in Apple’s quarterly financials.

SR2Z 4y ago
It would not be unreasonable to say that cables might make up $1B of that $13.5B - and given how stupidly profitable this scheme is, it's definitely not a "rounding error." A billion dollars is a billion dollars.
- stouset 4y ago
  Okay, so let’s agree for the sake of argument that cables make up $1bn of Apple revenue. What share of that is MFi cables in general? And what share of that is hypothetical MFi USB-C cables? At $4 a pop, you’re talking 125 million licensed third-party USB-C cables. Per quarter. That seems like an absurdly high number to me given the fact that most people will buy first-party cables. And hell, most people I know still use USB-A to Lightning cables to charge their phones at excruciatingly slow speeds. But sure. Fine. Half a billion licensed third party USB-C cables per year. Half a billion in revenue over a holiday quarter. To put some share of your $200Bn/yr cash cow at risk? Plus risking the downstream halo purchases of other highly-profitable products in the ecosystem, including first-party cables? You. Are. Out. Of. Your. Mind. If this rumor is true, there’s undoubtedly a plausible business reason. Cannibalizing their most popular product to make pocket change on licensing fees does not even pass a basic smell test.