(What if) Apple sold to Silicon to other manufacturers

[progx]

Apple is one of the top, if not number one, makers of ARM chips. Obviously, they're the only one who use their brand of ARM-based chipsets in their products. I couldn't imagine them selling their processors to anyone else.

This is a "What if" Apple decided to sell its chips for other companies to use in their products. See a couple of my examples below. Imagine a Surface from Microsoft, rather than using Qualcomm, it's running an Apple A(insert number here) Bionic chipset. The Nintendo Switch, which utilizes the Nvidia Tegra X1 chipset, running A12X and flying with game performance.

Again, this isn't happening, but I'd like to hear anyone else with some wild imagination. Where would you like to see Apple Silicon? In what kind of devices? Other smartphones? Tablets? TVs? Fridges?

 

[ruslan120]

My question is what happens when Apple wins? What happens when their processors give them such a substantial competitive advantage that everyone embraces their software and adopts the ecosystem which generates billions of dollars annually and lets them expand into enterprise and take over there (Apple Servers, Apple Cars, Apple Energy, Apple Furniture, Apple Food, etc), making them the first quadrillion dollar company while everyone else is in billions?

Will government regulators break up their monopoly? Will everyone be forced to switch to subdivided versions of Apple?

(forgot that it’s the internet, so adding clarifications, slightly exaggerating here, but what happens in this hypothetical scenario?)

 

[throAU]

Why would they do that? The whole point for apple is integration of hardware and software to create a unique competitive advantage.

Selling their chips would erode that, which they have spent the last 10 years working towards.

It would be tactically inept to say the least.

 

[progx]

Why would they do that? The whole point for apple is integration of hardware and software to create a unique competitive advantage.

I agree. It does and that’s the standpoint. These are just thoughts if Apple wanted to establish a grip on ARM chip manufacturing. As stated in the beginning of this forum, it isn’t going to happen.

Selling their chips would erode that, which they have spent the last 10 years working towards.

It would be tactically inept to say the least.

I would agree with that too. No one is saying it’s going to happen. If it did, where would you see Apple selling their chips to.

 

[ruslan120]

No one is saying it’s going to happen. If it did, where would you see Apple selling their chips to.

They seem close to BMW since BMW adopts their newest car technologies first so I would guess CarPlay modules or kits.

Not smartphones.

TVs are set. (AppleTV)

Expanding into modems and maybe another Apple router at some point, faster connectivity in iPhones.

Smart accessories (but they’d be Apple-branded and unlikely since Apple doesn’t specialize in the different sorts of lighting, heating, etc).

Thats all I can think of (thinking out loud) at the moment
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Servers would be huge. I imagine the next Mac Pro / Mac Server will sell huge quantities, since servers consume a huge amount of power and using ARM servers and cores of different capabilities (high power cores + low power cores for scalable energy consumption) have been hot research topics for years. ^ but that’s a bit off topic since we’re talking about the “where to next” rather than “where will these current processors be sold”

 

[TheKDub]

My question is what happens when Apple wins? What happens when their processors give them such a substantial competitive advantage that everyone embraces their software and adopts the ecosystem which generates billions of dollars annually and lets them expand into enterprise and take over there (Apple Servers, Apple Cars, Apple Energy, Apple Furniture, Apple Food, etc), making them the first quadrillion dollar company while everyone else is in billions?

Will government regulators break up their monopoly? Will everyone be forced to switch to subdivided versions of Apple?

(forgot that it’s the internet, so adding clarifications, slightly exaggerating here, but what happens in this hypothetical scenario?)

I eat apples every day. I doubt Apple can compete against the trees... /s

That being said, I do think in your hypothetical example, you hit it right on - regulators will definitely stop the monopoly well before they become the first quadrillion dollar company if everyone else remained in the billions (that's a hypothetical 1000x difference in size from Apple to #2 competitor to really hit the point).

Even in countries with huge corporations that dominate (South Korea comes to mind with Samsung - I believe Samsung revenue makes up something like 17% of Korea's GDP?) - there is still other large corporations that can compete on some level like LG, and Samsung still has to compete with non-Korean companies in many aspects so it's still just mostly a local monopoly. If Apple grew to world-wide monopoly, you'll see world governments quickly act. The U.S. government broke up AT&T and even Apple and Google are dealing with some anti-competitive suits in the U.S. and in the E.U.

 

[romanof]

If they did, then Apple would be in the same boat as Microsoft - having their products in a million different configurations beyond their control. I do not like MS, and have had nothing to do with their crap since the turn of the century, but I will admit that they get a lot of blame for stuff that is not their fault - drivers, cheap hardware, and such. Why would Apple want to get into that mess?

 

[throAU]

they get a lot of blame for stuff that is not their fault - drivers, cheap hardware, and such.

True, but as an end user, it doesn't matter who's fault it is. The experience still turns out to be garbage in those situations