Comment by rswail
3 days ago
Exactly my thought as I read it.
They make and sell the hardware that will actually make AI something everyone can used without needing to rely on OpenAI/Anthropic et al.
Apple has never had a moat, anyone else could have built this sort of hardware but they haven't.
So they don't care which model wins, because it will always move out to the edge of the network, and they own a large chunk of that edge.
> Apple has never had a moat, anyone else could have built this sort of hardware but they haven't.
I think both points are very incorrect. Apple has a massive moat. And Apple is making hardware (specifically, CPUs) that are two years ahead.
Well, the moat is that cpu/npu development is very hard, requires talented engineers, and requires access to cutting edge fab process, all of which in turn costs a lot of $$$. So, sure, “anyone” who has all that can definitely breach Apple’s moat.
Ok.. and why specifically do people work at Apple?
Hint: money is not the only reason.
Jeez.
I’m at a loss as to why you think I said that people would only work at Apple for money.
Most of the smart people I know have left Apple because over the last ten or fifteen years, all of the reasons other than money have gone away, and they don’t pay well.
1 reply →
Ermmm what?
Apples largest competitive advantage has always been and always will be - trust combined with epic marketing to make the vast majority of people aware of it.
Trust of quality, privacy w.r.t data etc.
I’m sorry but I’ve seen so many bad takes re. Apple over the years. Many of you think you are so smart on topics outside of your domain - but you’re not.
Don’t underestimate how much of their success is due to unusual internal advantages over competitors.
They spent decades learning to eliminate a 1000 headaches for themselves, and many for their customers, by accumulating vertical integration:
The co-design of their own comms, processors, devices and OS variants. Their own integrated supply chain and sales channels.
The better the results, the more invisible or clock-like their delivery.
Very easy to overlook. But nobody can match them on their terms.
(Nintendo also applied a unique set of internal advantages to generations of successful devices: vertically integrating humble components, highly scoped software, a strong theory of fun, and deep branding with novel polished interfaces.)
This post could be taught in business school. Kudos.
Apple is the only company that actually listened to Alan Kay when he said if you care about software, build hardware.
??? Apple’s advantage over their competition is the fact that they do hardware, Apple Silicon and they do operating systems Apple OS very very well, in comparison to the present competition in the marketplace.
They are the last company that’s vertical from the 1980s. Unfortunately, all the other companies (SGI, Sun, Digital etc..) died in the face of the Wintel colossus.
Marketing is irrelevant. If you don’t have something to sell that is actually any good see the Microsoft Surface fiasco and its lack of an impact in the marketplace.
What exactly about the parent comment is wrong? Apple has always been good at making hardware that people are willing to pay a premium to use. I can easily imagine them playing a similar role in local LLMs to the role they played in personal computing in the 1980s or smartphones in the 2010s.
> Apples largest competitive advantage has always been and always will be - trust.
Lmao
> Many of you think you are so smart on topics outside of your domain
Turn the mirror around