| > First, Apple is known to squeeze every penny from their suppliers to improve their bottom line. This is just unequivocally false. I used to work for a semiconductor company that was a supplier for Apple. Apple would pay a premium compared to other companies. The semiconductor game is kind of rigged, assuming you don't have your own fab, everyone knows your costs. They know how much a wafer costs and they know the size of your device, so they have a pretty good idea of what it costs you per device (they don't know your yield, but can guess a range). Everyone uses that information to keep your profit margins fairly low. Apple would pay a premium compared to other manufacturers. You could probably look at the financial reports of various apple suppliers and reverse engineer that information. Apple is extremely risk averse, them making their own modems is almost certainly about reducing supply chain risk. Profit margins will be lower down on the priority list. They can just increase the price of the phone to improve those. For the record, I am not an Apple fan, I disliked working for one of their suppliers and dislike their products. But they do pay their suppliers a premium. |