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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 "roun
by 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 agoOkay, 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.