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How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

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Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#191

Post by GeekyBear »

stevievee wrote: post #150
whoisjuan wrote: post #107

Apple is the best company in the world at operations. I don't know how they do it but: 1) Ever year they manage to diligently upgrade iphones/ipads, macbooks and watches. 2) Every year they make some progress in their quest of removing suppliers by becoming vertically integrated. They don't only remove the supplier. They beat their former suppliers specs. (e.g: M1 chip). 3) Every year they make some progress in their…

On 2)... TSMC produces the M1 and it will be interesting if they eventually enter the fab business... Apple is one of the few companies with the required capital. This is all on the heels of the news that Samsung is planning a foundry in the U.S.

Apple's usual way of doing business with Tim Cook running the supply chain is to buy a supplier a manufacturing line in return for guaranteed production levels on exactly the part they want.

This is the first case of this in action that I can remember.

>CUPERTINO, California—November 21, 2005—Apple® today announced that it has reached long-term supply agreements with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba to secure the supply of NAND flash memory through 2010. As part of these agreements, Apple intends to prepay a total of $1.25 billion for flash memory components during the next three months.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2005/11/21Apple-Announces-Lon...

Here's a more recent example.

>(Reuters) - Apple Inc on Tuesday said it would award Corning Inc $250 million from a $5 billion fund dedicated to U.S. advanced manufacturing.

In the past, Apple has made long-term supply agreements here with its vendors in which it provides upfront cash to lock in supplies of parts and better prices.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-corning/apple-award...

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#192

Post by silisili »

fma wrote: post #138
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #63

Steve Jobs built consumer products that he wanted for himself, his family and friends. He would push for out of the box ideas while scrutinizing every detail of the product, optimized and repeated. Tim Cook builds the supply chain that he wants for himself, his shareholders and coworkers. He pushes for out of the box ideas while scrutinizing every detail of the supply chain, optimizes and repeats. Tim Cook builds sup…

Did Musk really say that? The one impression I get of Tesla in terms of manufacturing...even overcoming all those setbacks is how they promised they to would build ventilators for hospitals. Everyone Ooohhed and Aaahed over it. Tesla never produced any ventilators. They bought basically CPAP machines from China. And my current google says as of October, their partnership w/ Medtronics to produce ventillators never ma…

People in USA should really read about world war efforts. You had a typewriter company make the most iconic handgun of all time, and fledgling car companies building plane engines. It was a true feat of modern engineering, one I wonder if could ever happen again, given our lack of production prowess.

The US now is full of product people who build overseas. While it's currently economically smart, it's a race to the bottom which eventually ends in completely foreign owned companies eating your lunch. It will be interesting to see how and if countries counter this eventuality.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#193

Post by ksec »

GloriousKoji wrote: post #159
DRW_ wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, Apple's operations and logistics are second to none in this industry. Watching AMD, NVIDIA, Sony, Microsoft and others struggling so much manufacturing their products, and then having Apple launch: - 2 new Apple Watches - 4 new iPhones - 3 new Macs - Airpods Max - Homepod Mini All with Apple's own custom designed chips, even relying on the same chip fabs as those other companies, and still managing to mostly avo…

> All with Apple's own custom designed chips, even relying on the same chip fabs as those other companies, and still managing to mostly avoid the huge shortages that those others have faced is impressive. I would not be surprised if the other companies are having shortages because of Apple taking up most of the fab capacity and support engineers.

>I would not be surprised if the other companies are having shortages because of Apple taking up most of the fab capacity and support engineers.

The whole reason why Apple got the advantage and others dont is merely because Apple is willing put down payment, contract obligation and guarantee over number of years. And their volume will dictate how TSMC plan their capacity. Unless other company are willing to place some sort of bet that they will at least buy x millions on x node within the x years. It is not TSMC's duty to second guess everyone of their customers volume and take the risk of empty Fabs with redundant capacity. Fabs are meant to run at near constant Full Capacity. Most so called Supply Chain expert and professionals are being taught JIT without really understanding the purpose of JIT. I dont like the product and strategy direction of Tim Cook, but he is absolutely a genius in Supply Chain and Operation Management.

Edit: And it just so happens there is a news story on JIT from Toyota https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26151072

And after the Qualcomm and Samsung 4G/5G settlement it seems Qualcomm will try to use Samsung Foundry whenever possible. So it should mean more room at TSMC next year.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#194

Post by saagarjha »

baybal2 wrote: post #51
duxup wrote: post #8

The article seems to hinge around China and etc more than most things. I do wonder how capable any company is to move manufacturing out of China at any kind of large scale.

Boomberg was always very apologetic of China, if not to say bordering on lobbying for them. No wonder, Bloomber is one of very, very, very few Western media operating in China through a franchise agreement.

Bloomberg also wrote the piece where they claimed China had infiltrated Apple, though.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#195

Post by adrr »

neximo64 wrote: post #98
thebrain wrote: post #33

For what it's worth, I don't think Steve Jobs would have ever allowed the charging port for the Magic Mouse to ever be on the bottom and forced the user to have to leave the mouse on it's side to charge.

Maybe you don't know Steve Jobs but it is exactly the thing he would do without even a shred of doubt. He's using the design to make you use it wirelessly (the way he wants). You're not supposed to use it like a normal mouse. The fact people moan about this would even make him more sure about it.. Also it came out back when and he probably saw it and approved it

Original Magic Mouse used regular batteries that you could change out. Magic mouse 2 has to worst design apple has come up for a mouse except for puck mouse. Flip it upside down every month to charge it. I am sure Jobs would cringe if he walked through the office at night saw people's mice upside down charging.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#196

Post by simonh »

novok wrote: post #157
whoisjuan wrote: post #107

Apple is the best company in the world at operations. I don't know how they do it but: 1) Ever year they manage to diligently upgrade iphones/ipads, macbooks and watches. 2) Every year they make some progress in their quest of removing suppliers by becoming vertically integrated. They don't only remove the supplier. They beat their former suppliers specs. (e.g: M1 chip). 3) Every year they make some progress in their…

Apple's mobile devices haven't been that interesting since the iPhone X / Watch Series 3. Nothing really has felt like a 'must have' upgrade. iPhone 12 & series 4 watch was definitely an improvement stylistically, but that's about it. And apple only really cares about privacy from 3rd parties, not privacy from apple for their customers. They don't E2E encrypt their backups, and many other services, which makes their…

Supposedly they were planning to encrypt backups, but looked at the expected number of users that would lose their keys and not be able to access their backups and bottled out.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#197

Post by danielscrubs »

silisili wrote: post #192
fma wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did Musk really say that? The one impression I get of Tesla in terms of manufacturing...even overcoming all those setbacks is how they promised they to would build ventilators for hospitals. Everyone Ooohhed and Aaahed over it. Tesla never produced any ventilators. They bought basically CPAP machines from China. And my current google says as of October, their partnership w/ Medtronics to produce ventillators never ma…

People in USA should really read about world war efforts. You had a typewriter company make the most iconic handgun of all time, and fledgling car companies building plane engines. It was a true feat of modern engineering, one I wonder if could ever happen again, given our lack of production prowess. The US now is full of product people who build overseas. While it's currently economically smart, it's a race to the b…

How would you solve the incentives though? If you increase the import duty you can no longer compete globally (because of less competition), which has happened for steel for example. Is there any other way that works?

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#198

Post by spoonjim »

cogman10 wrote: post #96
baybal2 wrote: post #79

I worked in, and around OEM electronics since 2007. I've seen many guys like Tim Cook, most worse off ones. He squeezes suppliers, and know what he is doing. Others squeeze suppliers, and don't know what they are doing. On one of my first jobs, I've been witness to one such negotiations down to single cents, and microns of plastic for a few million units customized charger order. The order was such a whopper for a sm…

This stuff is why USB-C PD scares me. You've got these manufactures that are struggling to make basic AC->DC inverters and now you want to throw on a negotiation step? Yeah, not going to end well for these cost cutting idiots. There are going to be destroyed devices and fires because some idiot decides "Just hard wire 20v and be done with it!"

I only use Apple chargers in my house, even for non Apple devices. I’m not saying Apple is the only quality charger, but I have no real methodology to assess the quality of any other brand.

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#199

Post by throwaway4485we »

spoonjim wrote: post #198
cogman10 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This stuff is why USB-C PD scares me. You've got these manufactures that are struggling to make basic AC->DC inverters and now you want to throw on a negotiation step? Yeah, not going to end well for these cost cutting idiots. There are going to be destroyed devices and fires because some idiot decides "Just hard wire 20v and be done with it!"

I only use Apple chargers in my house, even for non Apple devices. I’m not saying Apple is the only quality charger, but I have no real methodology to assess the quality of any other brand.

>I have no real methodology to assess the quality of any other brand

But then how did you assess the quality of Apple's chargers? Can the same methodology not be applied then to other brands as well?

Re: How Tim Cook transformed Apple after Steve Jobs

#200

Post by Judgmentality »

throwaway4485we wrote: post #199
spoonjim wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only use Apple chargers in my house, even for non Apple devices. I’m not saying Apple is the only quality charger, but I have no real methodology to assess the quality of any other brand.

>I have no real methodology to assess the quality of any other brand But then how did you assess the quality of Apple's chargers? Can the same methodology not be applied then to other brands as well?

Nobody else has Apple's resources for supply management, nor are they as large a target for getting sued - Apple has the ability and incentive to sell safe products.
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