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I’d love some super smart technologist in this forum to give a realistic and practical pathway to disrupting apple in the mobile or “computer” market. Given th

I’d love some super smart technologist in this forum to give a realistic and practical pathway to disrupting apple in the mobile or “computer” market. Given the fact that Apple has such a dominant position in every part of the supply chain infrastructure I’m challenged with being able to see how any organization could possibly come up with something that pushes Apple into bankruptcy.

drexlspivey 4y ago
China invades Taiwan?
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  Is this legitimately the only realistic option?
  - jopython 4y ago
    That has to be accounted for.
  - freedomben 4y ago
    Why would this affect Apple? I would think China would not want to destroy TSMC, quite the opposite they'd love to have it. They would also want to get Taiwan humming economically again as fast as possible. Apple has been plenty happy to work with the CCP in the past, so I don't understand how/why this would bankrupt Apple or really even cause them lots of problems.
    - josephcsible 4y ago
      China wouldn't want to destroy TSMC. The West would rather destroy TSMC than let China have it.
      - philistine 4y ago
        If China invades, the West probably couldn't swallow Russian-style sanctions for the whole country, but it would assuredly enact sanctions related to activity in Taiwan. TSMC is not trading with China suppliers to make its chips, its trading West. https://www.techspot.com/news/96291-taiwan-destroying-tsmc-event-chinese-invasion-unnecessary.html https://www.techspot.com/news/96291-taiwan-destroying-tsmc-e... So TSMC would probably become irrelevant in due time if there were strong sanctions against China. That, and the persistent rumour that Taiwan has a plan to literally blow up the fabs if China invades gives us a picture were invading Taiwan is ideological for China, not an economic power grab.
      - dirtyid 4y ago
        Europe and even US still buying Russian oil through obfuscated, transshipped means as stop gap and that's a fungible commodity. Would west cut off their access to 90% of advanced nodes, where they reap most of the value add, and sustains their leading tech industries? Maybe that dependency goes down to 70% in 10 years, but maybe it's closer 100% since there's a lot of dependencies from TW industries itself. Realistically PRC will glass most of TW defense, start a blockade and leverage continued acess to western semi to try to constrain conflict. It's not like PRC can maintain TSMC without western input. Keeping TSMC running is pretty much the only strategic goal in everyone's interest.
jjtheblunt 4y ago
Why would you want that?
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  One of the hallmarks of being a hacker is a Democratic spirit. The ethos that we’re forever vigilant and deeply skeptical of structural power. Apple has too much power, no for profit company or person can responsibly wield with that much power.
  - dijit 4y ago
    Eh... I am not worried (yet). Desktop domination is still Windows for the 30th year in a row. Windows currently is much more of a threat to open computing and has been since forever. Is it nice to have faster ARM chips? Yeah. Does it mean that Apple has a monopoly position? Not really, they just have an edge right now, I'm sure they pay eye-watering amounts to TSMC. Intel could compete on the lower price end, but they don't, they're instead trying to convince you that they're the fastest chips on the planet, and funnel a power plants worth of electricity through the chip to get there. But they could come back to prominence with a lower power, slower, lower price chip.
  - mvid 4y ago
    It’s a nice thought, but the reality is statements like this are just “I want google to have the power” and that’s not better
    - kitsunesoba 4y ago
      Or in the case of desktop/laptop computers, "I want Microsoft to have the power". If Apple suddenly vanished, realistically speaking most of its desktop marketshare would fall directly into Microsoft's lap as those users switched to Windows. The only exception would be devs using Linux instead, which at best represents a single digit percentage of computer users. So in this scenario you end up with Windows being catapulted from its current ~75% global marketshare to a 90%+ virtually-unopposed monopoly, and even less reason for Microsoft to make Windows a good product.
sammywater 4y ago
[dead]
sosodev 4y ago
Is this really something a technologist could take on? Apple could almost certainly copy and improve any hot new tech before it has time to seriously hurt their bottom line. They have a ton of resources... My guess is that only another Apple could dethrone Apple. That's to say a company that produces high quality products with strong branding consistently over multiple decades. Google and Samsung are competitors but in my mind, as an Apple user, their products are not worthy quality wise of the luxury prices they demand.
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  How would such a company start and grow without simply being absorbed or copied by Apple or another similar oligopolist?
  - sosodev 4y ago
    Being copied isn't much of an issue if the company isn't relying on features to make themselves competitive. To grow without being acquired they would need to avoid funding from investors and be extremely disciplined. That's probably never going to happen in this space.
- fomine3 4y ago
  Huawei has been great but unlikely to be next Apple due to sanction

drexlspivey 4y ago

China invades Taiwan?

AndrewKemendo 4y ago
Is this legitimately the only realistic option?
- jopython 4y ago
  That has to be accounted for.
- freedomben 4y ago
  Why would this affect Apple? I would think China would not want to destroy TSMC, quite the opposite they'd love to have it. They would also want to get Taiwan humming economically again as fast as possible. Apple has been plenty happy to work with the CCP in the past, so I don't understand how/why this would bankrupt Apple or really even cause them lots of problems.
  - josephcsible 4y ago
    China wouldn't want to destroy TSMC. The West would rather destroy TSMC than let China have it.
    - philistine 4y ago
      If China invades, the West probably couldn't swallow Russian-style sanctions for the whole country, but it would assuredly enact sanctions related to activity in Taiwan. TSMC is not trading with China suppliers to make its chips, its trading West. https://www.techspot.com/news/96291-taiwan-destroying-tsmc-event-chinese-invasion-unnecessary.html https://www.techspot.com/news/96291-taiwan-destroying-tsmc-e... So TSMC would probably become irrelevant in due time if there were strong sanctions against China. That, and the persistent rumour that Taiwan has a plan to literally blow up the fabs if China invades gives us a picture were invading Taiwan is ideological for China, not an economic power grab.
    - dirtyid 4y ago
      Europe and even US still buying Russian oil through obfuscated, transshipped means as stop gap and that's a fungible commodity. Would west cut off their access to 90% of advanced nodes, where they reap most of the value add, and sustains their leading tech industries? Maybe that dependency goes down to 70% in 10 years, but maybe it's closer 100% since there's a lot of dependencies from TW industries itself. Realistically PRC will glass most of TW defense, start a blockade and leverage continued acess to western semi to try to constrain conflict. It's not like PRC can maintain TSMC without western input. Keeping TSMC running is pretty much the only strategic goal in everyone's interest.

jjtheblunt 4y ago

Why would you want that?

AndrewKemendo 4y ago
One of the hallmarks of being a hacker is a Democratic spirit. The ethos that we’re forever vigilant and deeply skeptical of structural power. Apple has too much power, no for profit company or person can responsibly wield with that much power.
- dijit 4y ago
  Eh... I am not worried (yet). Desktop domination is still Windows for the 30th year in a row. Windows currently is much more of a threat to open computing and has been since forever. Is it nice to have faster ARM chips? Yeah. Does it mean that Apple has a monopoly position? Not really, they just have an edge right now, I'm sure they pay eye-watering amounts to TSMC. Intel could compete on the lower price end, but they don't, they're instead trying to convince you that they're the fastest chips on the planet, and funnel a power plants worth of electricity through the chip to get there. But they could come back to prominence with a lower power, slower, lower price chip.
- mvid 4y ago
  It’s a nice thought, but the reality is statements like this are just “I want google to have the power” and that’s not better
  - kitsunesoba 4y ago
    Or in the case of desktop/laptop computers, "I want Microsoft to have the power". If Apple suddenly vanished, realistically speaking most of its desktop marketshare would fall directly into Microsoft's lap as those users switched to Windows. The only exception would be devs using Linux instead, which at best represents a single digit percentage of computer users. So in this scenario you end up with Windows being catapulted from its current ~75% global marketshare to a 90%+ virtually-unopposed monopoly, and even less reason for Microsoft to make Windows a good product.

sammywater 4y ago

[dead]

sosodev 4y ago

Is this really something a technologist could take on? Apple could almost certainly copy and improve any hot new tech before it has time to seriously hurt their bottom line. They have a ton of resources... My guess is that only another Apple could dethrone Apple. That's to say a company that produces high quality products with strong branding consistently over multiple decades. Google and Samsung are competitors but in my mind, as an Apple user, their products are not worthy quality wise of the luxury prices they demand.

AndrewKemendo 4y ago
How would such a company start and grow without simply being absorbed or copied by Apple or another similar oligopolist?
- sosodev 4y ago
  Being copied isn't much of an issue if the company isn't relying on features to make themselves competitive. To grow without being acquired they would need to avoid funding from investors and be extremely disciplined. That's probably never going to happen in this space.
fomine3 4y ago
Huawei has been great but unlikely to be next Apple due to sanction