[baybal2]

> Apple also operate at a scale most companies can't, which means that even without federal product exclusions Apple would still be in a better position to do this than most companies. Those companies in the industry can think all they want, but they're unlikely to get the same federal exclusion, and even less likely to be able to execute anything like this anywhere near as efficiently as Apple.

This is also tells of that even an entity the size of Apple+Flex+Foxconn can't run a whole vertical manufacturing themselves.

It is kind of a myth that Foxconn came to South China when "there was nothing," and did everything in house. Foxconn was a whacking huge buyer of everything in Guangdong since the very beginning, going back to times when the biggest foreign manufacturers in China were Japanese (true, Toshiba, Shrap, NEC, Sanyo all had factories in the middle of what is now Futian district of Shenzhen)