Comment by bmitc
2 years ago
And that is stuff Apple absolutely does. I have been at a company for which Apple was a customer. But you'd think that Apple owned the company the way they through around their power and demands.
2 years ago
And that is stuff Apple absolutely does. I have been at a company for which Apple was a customer. But you'd think that Apple owned the company the way they through around their power and demands.
It's like that everywhere unfortunately. You get a client with enough disparity in size and they are pretty much calling the shots. Can't even imagine that scaled up to Apple size.
It’s not though. My company partners with several other Apple sized and larger tech companies. Some are better than others, and we have running jokes about the ones that like to try to throw around their weight. Because, as you might expect, they are unpleasant to work with.
From experience, the size doesn’t matter as much as the delta in revenue, or size of that client’s project vs. typical projects. And on the flip side some of the clients that paid least were the hardest to get to sign off on projects, but at least those don’t actually think they’re entitled to harass your team.
how many tech companies are apple sized or larger? i think youre full of shit.
3 replies →
It should be based in size of contract, not size of company. If Apple wants to buy a stick of bubble gum from me, they go to the back of the line like everyone else. If my contract with Apple represents 80% of revenues for the year, yeah, they own me.
> If Apple wants to buy a stick of bubble gum from me, they go to the back of the line like everyone else
Unless you're the people I've worked for, you would drop everything for the chance to impress Apple.
But my comment did have the false assumption that the contract size would be large.
2 replies →
> Can't even imagine that scaled up to Apple size.
Have you ever dealt with a big government? Then you can imagine, Apple doesn't have as much weight as typical governments but it is close.
Typical how? Weight as defined how? Here is one way of looking at it.
First, look at purchasing power of various governments. See https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/real-gdp-purcha....
> Real GDP (purchasing power parity): GDP (purchasing power parity) compares the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States.
Second, look at COGS for Apple: "Apple annual cost of goods sold for 2021 was $212.981B" according to https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/cost-go.... COGS is arguably "close enough" to a nation-state's GDP to make for a useful comparison.
Given the above two, if Apple were a country with a GDP matching its COGS, it would rank about 66th, using a mix of 2022/2021 numbers from the sources above:
But I wouldn't stop here. What happens if we compare Apple's COGS with the _technology spend_ of each of the nation-states above? If we estimate that 10% of GDP is technology-related, making it comparable to Apple, then Apple's ranking would be 15th on the list, right in front of Canada.