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Well I was thinking of the major counterexample that they own essentially none of their manufacturing. They don't produce any of their components -- even the pr
by phil 15y ago
Well I was thinking of the major counterexample that they own essentially none of their manufacturing. They don't produce any of their components -- even the processors they design get built by (I believe) Samsung.
As far as I've been able to tell, design and engineering get hauled in because they want to control it. I guess you can add the stores, too.
But buying something like an LCD panel maker? Or a flash maker? Or Foxconn? I'd be shocked.
- tesseract 15y agoWell they already did buy a flash maker, Anobit. That said, Anobit is fabless just like PA Semi was. If I am not mistaken, there were reports that Apple provided at least some of the capital for both Samsung's upcoming fab in Texas and the newly opened Foxconn factory in Brazil. I guess they have decided it doesn't (yet?) make sense to own manufacturing facilities outright, but they seem to be making actual investments in their manufacturing partners rather than just purchasing services. I would say that is indeed further evidence of a tendency toward vertical integration.