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Apple is America's semiconductor problem

semiconductor-digest.com

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Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#81

Post by downWidOutaFite »

malkosta wrote: post #67

The idea that introducing more regulations will foster the U.S. semiconductor industry doesn’t make sense. History shows that heavy regulation often stifles competition and innovation, leading to stagnation—similar to what happened in Russia’s outdated industries. Instead of imposing more rules that could entrench dominant players, the focus should be on creating an environment that encourages competition and innovat…

Why bring up Russia when we have the Chinese example? History shows that China has captured huge industries by using heavy-handed government regulation

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#82

Post by htk »

Terrible article, as expected from Matt Stoller.

"With this position, Apple uses its outsized buying power to squeeze the margins of its suppliers such as Foxconn, leading to poor pay and terrible working conditions in Chinese factories."

So Foxconn is either choosing to not do business with Apple's competitors who would pay more (??), or the competitors can't place orders of the magnitude that Apple can and Foxconn workforce would just be smaller with a lot less people being employed.

The intellectual dishonesty in the argumentation is so bad that I'm pretty sure I'll skip future Matt Stoller articles.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#83

Post by rlili »

peppertree wrote: post #62
blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When companies are so big that their value is measured in the trillions I think the line between the two is blurry. These companies are managed top down internally after all, so they’re just a smaller “Soviet” situation.

The key difference is corporations are managed top down by competent actors that understand the market, and there's consequence to mismanagement.

> and there's consequence to mismanagemen

Except if you're a company so large that the government has no choice but to bail you out in a crisis.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#84

Post by throwaway290 »

pie420 wrote: post #69
asdasdsddd wrote: post #59

> Apple buys a far larger share of smartphone and computer semiconductors, given that it accounts for half of global smartphones sales and earns 85% of all smartphones I feel like I'm getting trolled by the author who is citing sales and profits instead of units produced as a metric.

units sold dont matter when the competition is selling $100 smartphones at a loss. The fact that one company is making 85% of the profits in an entire industry as massive as SMARTPHONES should be terrifying, but i guess we don't care about monopolism for some reason

> when the competition is selling $100 smartphones at a loss

That is actually terrifying, because logic dictates they make up profit in other ways. I can imagine how an ad company or nation state can go about it.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#85

Post by hx833001 »

Intel should have produced ARM chips for Apple as a foundry. If they’re to be wildly successful again, they will be doing this anyway. They gave up 18+ years out of x86 pride and bad leadership. I hope Gelsinger can beat TSMC at the process technology game and win Apple’s business.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#86

Post by xboxnolifes »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #45
peppertree wrote: post #21

Apple is a proxy of what people want. The Soviet has already tried top down supply chain management and it did not work.

When companies are so big that their value is measured in the trillions I think the line between the two is blurry. These companies are managed top down internally after all, so they’re just a smaller “Soviet” situation.

The difference appears in failure. 100,000 companies can bankrupt before reaching a single $1 trillion company and that's just markets working as intended. But the government doesn't get that failure mode, at least it's generally not approved of. Apple wasn't, and isn't, the only company trying to be in their position, but they are one of the few trillion dollar companies.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#87

Post by Barrin92 »

causal wrote: post #46
duxup wrote: post #32

I have zero doubt Apple's influence is considerable and maybe monopolistic or something like that in a number of ways. But I find an article that doesn't even address any other companies a little hard to swallow. Are other companies simply not able to "reshore" chip fabs? I have no idea what some of the tidbits thrown in about the apple watch has anything to do with the topic. Let alone some of the heavy handed lines…

Yeah I'm a little confused by the premise. How would reshoring chip production be easier if Apple weren't out there buying chips? I get that they are buying up all of the TSMC chips in some segments. Doesn't that just create demand for an alternative? I can't cohere the themes of this article.

>How would reshoring chip production be easier if Apple weren't out there buying chips?

Because Apple's dominant position as a monopsonist means it has price setting power and depresses the profits in the chip industry, making all but the cheapest locations effectively unsustainable. Monopsonists essentially absorb the profits of their suppliers. This is for example why nationalized health services are cheap.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#88

Post by kergonath »

daft_pink wrote: post #58
duxup wrote: post #32

I have zero doubt Apple's influence is considerable and maybe monopolistic or something like that in a number of ways. But I find an article that doesn't even address any other companies a little hard to swallow. Are other companies simply not able to "reshore" chip fabs? I have no idea what some of the tidbits thrown in about the apple watch has anything to do with the topic. Let alone some of the heavy handed lines…

I agree. I feel the quality of the article leaves something to be desired knowing that semiconductors are purchased by so many different players. Feels like a hit piece.

> Feels like a hit piece.

The title tends to give this impression, to be honest.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#89

Post by SllX »

pie420 wrote: post #69
asdasdsddd wrote: post #59

> Apple buys a far larger share of smartphone and computer semiconductors, given that it accounts for half of global smartphones sales and earns 85% of all smartphones I feel like I'm getting trolled by the author who is citing sales and profits instead of units produced as a metric.

units sold dont matter when the competition is selling $100 smartphones at a loss. The fact that one company is making 85% of the profits in an entire industry as massive as SMARTPHONES should be terrifying, but i guess we don't care about monopolism for some reason

Monopolies are measured according to market share, not profit share.

Re: Apple is America's semiconductor problem

#90

Post by necovek »

WheatMillington wrote: post #20
brigadier132 wrote: post #11

The kind of monopoly apple has is interesting. In the US Apple has a complete monopoly on customers that spend money. If your app shows ads, apple customers are more valuable. If your app sells any kind of product apple users buy more. Market power is not determined by the number of users but by control of revenue.

Nothing you mentioned could be described as a monopoly. Monopoly has a definition, we can't just make it up as we go.

Monopoly is not the same as anti-competitive tactics: monopoly is simply a control of a market segment, and while GP was using it a bit freely, affluent phone users are certainly a market segment.

A monopoly using anti-competitive tactics attracts regulatory review, but anti-competitive tactics are forbidden for both small and large companies.

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