So much for Apple corning the flash memory market! This will enable the competition to find a lot more flash available on the open market for good prices.
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Apple Diversifying Memory Suppliers Too, Moving Away from Samsung
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No doubt Tim has brought this to the attention of the new suppliers and they will rise to the occasion. I suspect Samsung's was so good due to Apple R&D and input as part of the massive deal they did. Those days are over for sure.
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Not necessarily so if Samsung build to order. The sales of the so called iPad killers were low due to a total lack of interest rather than the difference in price this could make. On top of that Samsung will be laying off workers and closing down production lines once Apple's orders cease which in turn will probably mean a rise in costs anyway for the small amounts iPad killer tablets will purchase.
You have to be kidding
You have to be kidding. Talk to us again next year about this time when the final release will be ready. By then everyone else will have moved on. Have you used one? I have.
You have to be kidding. Talk to us again next year about this time when the final release will be ready. By then everyone else will have moved on. Have you used one? I have.
Flawed logic as there are so many variables that you aren't taking account for or have no knowledge of.
But go ahead - start ringing the death knell for Samsung. That's really what you want, right?
Seems to me Apple has had multiple RAM vendors for a long time; it's not a recent occurrence. I upgrade to new machines regularly, sometimes two at the same time and often different models will have different brands of RAM. Same w/ HDs. They are commodities.
Apple may be moving away from Samsung, or it might be the other way around. And also for reasons not quite unknown.
Apple may be moving away from Samsung, or it might be the other way around. And also for reasons not quite unknown.
I sincerely hope it does something to compete with iOS. I was a long-time, die-hard Windows user for years before I switched. I have lost all but a VERY small glimmering hope in Microsoft. They have the ability to do things that make sense to the consumer (when they have to), but so far I haven't seen it with Windows 8. The mockups look pretty, but not particularly intuitive. And the developer build that is out right now probably should not have been released in it's current state. It is unusable for any purpose relevant to developing software.
Like others have said, it might do just what you suggest. I certainly see it doing better than the other "competitors." But right now there is way too much work for Microsoft to do on 8 before I will be convinced of any impending successful competition.
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I think you are being optimistic. They are probably at least 2 or 3 years from release. If they have announced this release date, it will be pushed back.
More NAND, please. The more people manufacture, the cheaper it gets, the sooner we can eliminate the ancient and clunky mechanical drives once and for all. Bye-bye DVD/Blu-ray: you won't be missed.
The fact that Apple hasn't been able to find enough parts to make enough devices to meet demand undermines your point, big time.
Who uses DVD or BD for their main mass storage? I think you mean HDDs. Optical drives are already going away (see: MBA and current Mac Mini ). You are correct though, neither HDDs nor optical media will be missed.
this (or rather, what is implied) holds true only under the basic assumption that the supplier has no unserved demand; i.e. that access to components are not scarce (supply < demand).
If demand for a product is larger than supply, the server is not dependent on a single customer - but rather on the demand of the industry as such (limited by the productional capabilities).
Yes, in the long run lower demand is always lower demand (you could always produce more, even though it may not always make economical sense due to margin-costs and thresholds etc.). But there is no fundamental law that states that the customer is always the one ruling the power-assymetry. That all depends on how replaceable actors are to each other (can consumers can use different suppliers? can suppliers tend to different consumers?).
Further, i think you oversimplify what it takes to produce world-leading technology. If it was merely about setting up factories, china would be world-leading everything. They're obviously not. While it is true that production (scale and scope) may be an industrial asset (at least in some ways), knowledge, however, is not.
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which matter less in a world where components are (in many ways) standardized (while not equal), and thus industry demand is key (not single vendor purchases).
(yes, we are in a mass-customization era, rather than mass-production per se, but point still holds).
And I'll add that any business that hopes to succeed does not build their business on one client (one pillar) of revenue. It's a recipe for disaster - and I doubt that Samsung - while they LOVE/Enjoy their client relationship - pins all of their hopes and dreams on Apple.
They've been producing great flash units since before the original iPhone. I doubt Apple R&D, which is small enough, would have been spent with Samsung in this case.
change that to the industry. latest i read, others had hard time keeping up with samsung (in the screen space).
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its amazing how facts like these get down-voted over and over again...
seagate has entered a strategic alliance with samsung, basically signing over the whole flash-market to the latter while in return getting hold of samsungs physical disc business. or so i read...
HDDs are still cheaper and store more than current SSDs.
Once SSDs matches the capacity of HDDs, we might see the demise of the latter.
1) Huh? Windows phone has gone from 7.0 to 7.1 to 7.5 in one year (ok, will... mango isnt officially released for another 2 weeks). In the same time we have gone from ios4 to ios5. How is 2(1) more than 3(2)?
Care to explain?
2) Office reiterates every few years. Where is the need for more rapid development of the Office product? Is this even something that there is demand for? Also, this is not mentioning all the interim service-updates that you get every now and then...
3) Same goes for windows. Where is the need? Where is the demand? Why would we even ask for massive reworks of our OS every year or six months? Just like Office, its a mature product as is.
4) and you suggest what? consoles have always been stable, completely in accordance with the whole idea of providing a platform. Games are where things happen, not the core. This, ignoring the fact that other things have happened (integrated video call etc.)
5) What are you asking for with IE? Would it be better if they made every minor update into a (major) version number? What would that change?
6) yes, when you release a major revision every three years or so you end up with 3 or 4 per decade. What is the problem here, really? Do you think businesses (msfts main customer) likes to switch platform every 6 months? If so: They dont. Nor do regular users.
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apple spending 5.7 bill does not equate 5.7 bill in profits for samsung. Nor would losing apples business mean losing 5.7 bill in revenue or profit.
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which is why they are world leading in the area, and everyone wants their chips. r&d paying off in action!
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See above. What matters is the projected growth of the industry (then, excl. Apple). For as long as demand will remain well over supply (which it will for years), Samsung has no problem selling elsewhere. Apple, however, will have problems sourcing elsewhere (relatively, of course) as not all suppliers can match the capabilities and quality of Samsung. Very simple, really.
If company A buys 7.5 million 111chips or company B C and D buys 7.5 million 111chips doesnt really matter in the end (ok, it does to some degree, but it is minor in this context).
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there is a clear shortage of samsungs samoleds... might of course be that sammy wants to use them as differentiating factor (having the best screen is a good selling point), but still..
The truth is somewhat in the middle; while it does mean one or two other manufacturers will get large orders from Apple, it'll also mean they will go to full capacity and will have to turn down smaller clients. These smaller clients in turn are more likely to go somewhere with cheap prices and excess capacity. So while it will mean a big blow for samsung on the short run, on the longer term (1+ yr) effects will be mitigated.
Nevertheless loosing such a big customer i doubt they will ever be able to compensate. They'll have excess capacity for a long time.
You MUST be joking? Samsung SSDs are good thanks to Apple R&D? WOW! RDF ALERT!!!
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Why would the supplier of perhaps the best product-type in a scarcity market suffer from excess capacity for a long time? Apple or no Apple, Samsung will have to capacity to meet industry demand for years to come.
If i saw "Samsung free" written on an Apple product box one day it would really be a nice LOL moment 
.
Apple will do just fine without Samsung.
.Apple will do just fine without Samsung.
Sammy has plenty of corporate customers to buy their memory. This is but a blip on the radar for them.
Don't kid yourself, Apple is the one doing the biting, threatening and suing. Apple's favorite tactic.
Always the bully, Apple must feed it's ego and insatiable need for attention by these methods.
Most people have no idea how massive Samsung is, in it's entirety. Samsung is doing just fine
This true. But . . . .
No one will by buying Apple quantity of flash ram. So it'll be a lot of companies buying it. So no bulk discount from Samsung. And cause of this shortage Samsung can charge whatever they want for the flash ram.
And the end result?
Higher flash ram costs being passed down to the final consumers as higher touchpad and phone ultrabook and whatever prices. And the competition have a hard time matching Apple on tablet and ultrabook pricing as it is now.
If I was a ultrabook or tablet maker/designer and not Apple I'd be very worried. They want cheap parts. Not Samsung dictating prices cause there's no where else to get the flash ram.
And this affects Samsung:
If Apple leave them. And they out price the ram they have (or ram they will make), they could price themselves out of the market. As much as the other want flash ram. No one will put ram in a product that will not sell cause the parts to make it are to expensive. Well they won't make that mistake more than a few times
.Samsung could make a killing if they don't be greedy and price themselves out of the market.
This true. But . . . .
No one will by buying Apple quantity of flash ram. So it'll be a lot of companies buying it. So no bulk discount from Samsung. And cause of this shortage Samsung can charge whatever they want for the flash ram.
And the end result?
Higher flash ram costs being passed down to the final consumers as higher touchpad and phone ultrabook and whatever prices. And the competition have a hard time matching Apple on tablet and ultrabook pricing as it is now.
If I was a ultrabook or tablet maker/designer and not Apple I'd be very worried. They want cheap parts. Not Samsung dictating prices cause there's no where else to get the flash ram.
And this affects Samsung:
If Apple leave them. And they out price the ram they have (or ram they will make), they could price themselves out of the market. As much as the other want flash ram. No one will put ram in a product that will not sell cause the parts to make it are to expensive. Well they won't make that mistake more than a few times
Samsung could make a killing if they don't be greedy and price themselves out of the market.
if this was a serious issue they could buy components jointly, and thus achieve the same bargaining power as if they were an apple-sized entity. No biggie, in other words.