Quote:
Originally Posted by silentsim
Apple gets significantly cheaper parts due to the volume!
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Not in the way we traditionally think, I don't think. I doubt Apple gets substantial discounts on their parts, since the supplier margins have to be pretty tight as well. But, Apple leverages their vast cash reserves to buy massive quantities of available supply on guaranteed Apple-exclusive contracts, and I think that makes the remaining supply of parts far more expensive for other manufacturers. There have frequently been stories about shortages of mobile sized LCD panels and solid state storage, both of which can be attributed to Apple monopolizing purchasing.
As consumers, we saw the same effect when the hard drive manufacturing sector got hit - since most drives go to the big manufactures first on their guaranteed contracts, we had to pay more to fight for the scraps left over in the supply chain.