5 ms·

Perhaps we're still seeing the aftereffects of suing their largest component supplier, who also happen to be one of the largest LCD panel manufacturers in the w

by adwf 13y ago

Perhaps we're still seeing the aftereffects of suing their largest component supplier, who also happen to be one of the largest LCD panel manufacturers in the world?

caycep 13y ago
or it could be the different pieces of said component supplier suing each other. Always hard to figure out how the Chaebol works...
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  For those who don’t know the term ‘chaebol’: They’re South Korean business conglomerates, controlled by a chairman who has power over all the operations. Often, the leaders of the divisions are blood relatives. The chaebol have enormous influence in South Korean politics. The largest chaebol are Samsung, Hyundai, and Lucky Goldstar (LG). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol
- adwf 13y ago
  Yes very true; I remember hearing once (I don't know how true this bit is), that Samsung Group alone make up around 20% of the South Korean economy... It may just be me, but I do detect a slight slowing down of Apple's supply chain in recent years though. I know that they've had a lot of trouble when trying to move away from Samsung, simply because Samsung were/are the only single supplier that is able to provide the sheer quantity of components that Apple need. Also, Apple always used to have a habit of having their big product announcements available for order and shipping on the day that they announced them, not 2 months down the line. When you add in potential omissions like the 4k monitors (or any kind of monitor refresh since 2011), you have to start thinking that perhaps they have a few troubles down the line. Whether it's suppliers being difficult, or just a factor of the sheer size that Apple has reached, I really don't know.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    > I remember hearing once that Samsung Group alone make up around 20% of the South Korean economy It was. Right now, South Korea GDP is 1687 trillion Won. Samsung’s revenue is 252 trillion Won. That makes Samsung’s share 15 percent. Hyundai adds another 12% and LG 11%. That’s 38% of the economy in hands of just three companies. Effectively, South Korea is an oligarchy[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
rsynnott 13y ago
The 4K Panel Asus use for their monitor is a Sharp part, not a Samsung part; Sharp is, indeed, apparently the only company making these at the moment. Which may be part of why we don't see an Apple one; they tend to go with at least two suppliers for LCDs (possibly three) and Sharp's volume is likely very low for now.
- orbitur 13y ago
  This is one of the key factors. I think the other is that when they shove a high density display into a phone/tablet, it's simply a bigger deal. When Apple finally does sell a 4k monitor, they won't be selling mountains of them. It won't be a niche halo sports car product like the Mac Pro. It'll just be an expensive monitor with a ThunderBolt hub. There's simply less incentive, so they're going to wait until suppliers catch up rather than pushing the suppliers.
  - rsynnott 13y ago
    Yup; I also think they'll need to wait a while just for prices to fall. If they made a $1000 4K monitor, they could sell that in moderate numbers; it's in reach of the enthusiast market. At over $3k, they're looking at a segment of the professional graphics market only, and that's probably too small; it'd be even more niche than the Mac Pro, which is at least of some interest to enthusiasts and some developers.

by adwf 13y ago

Perhaps we're still seeing the aftereffects of suing their largest component supplier, who also happen to be one of the largest LCD panel manufacturers in the world?

caycep 13y ago

or it could be the different pieces of said component supplier suing each other. Always hard to figure out how the Chaebol works...

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
For those who don’t know the term ‘chaebol’: They’re South Korean business conglomerates, controlled by a chairman who has power over all the operations. Often, the leaders of the divisions are blood relatives. The chaebol have enormous influence in South Korean politics. The largest chaebol are Samsung, Hyundai, and Lucky Goldstar (LG). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol
adwf 13y ago
Yes very true; I remember hearing once (I don't know how true this bit is), that Samsung Group alone make up around 20% of the South Korean economy... It may just be me, but I do detect a slight slowing down of Apple's supply chain in recent years though. I know that they've had a lot of trouble when trying to move away from Samsung, simply because Samsung were/are the only single supplier that is able to provide the sheer quantity of components that Apple need. Also, Apple always used to have a habit of having their big product announcements available for order and shipping on the day that they announced them, not 2 months down the line. When you add in potential omissions like the 4k monitors (or any kind of monitor refresh since 2011), you have to start thinking that perhaps they have a few troubles down the line. Whether it's suppliers being difficult, or just a factor of the sheer size that Apple has reached, I really don't know.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  > I remember hearing once that Samsung Group alone make up around 20% of the South Korean economy It was. Right now, South Korea GDP is 1687 trillion Won. Samsung’s revenue is 252 trillion Won. That makes Samsung’s share 15 percent. Hyundai adds another 12% and LG 11%. That’s 38% of the economy in hands of just three companies. Effectively, South Korea is an oligarchy[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy

rsynnott 13y ago

The 4K Panel Asus use for their monitor is a Sharp part, not a Samsung part; Sharp is, indeed, apparently the only company making these at the moment. Which may be part of why we don't see an Apple one; they tend to go with at least two suppliers for LCDs (possibly three) and Sharp's volume is likely very low for now.

orbitur 13y ago
This is one of the key factors. I think the other is that when they shove a high density display into a phone/tablet, it's simply a bigger deal. When Apple finally does sell a 4k monitor, they won't be selling mountains of them. It won't be a niche halo sports car product like the Mac Pro. It'll just be an expensive monitor with a ThunderBolt hub. There's simply less incentive, so they're going to wait until suppliers catch up rather than pushing the suppliers.
- rsynnott 13y ago
  Yup; I also think they'll need to wait a while just for prices to fall. If they made a $1000 4K monitor, they could sell that in moderate numbers; it's in reach of the enthusiast market. At over $3k, they're looking at a segment of the professional graphics market only, and that's probably too small; it'd be even more niche than the Mac Pro, which is at least of some interest to enthusiasts and some developers.