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5by5 | The Critical Path #62: The New Chess Game

Nov 8, ’12 9:23 AM
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In this episode Horace and Moisés discuss the iPad mini launch weekend (vis-a-vis older iPads and Windows 8), the curious case of choosy late adopters of smartphones in the US and the mystery of Apple’s capex late in the year. Horace spins a yarn about how Apple is playing chess with Sharp and Foxconn (and others) vs. Samsung.

via 5by5 | The Critical Path #62: The New Chess Game.

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    Looks like guys other than Samsung and Apple are also trying to play “the new chess game”:

    “Brand vendors are trying to become more involved in R&D and the component purchasing of their notebook products.”

    Source: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121107PD220.html

    • Mark Adams

      Would be interested in knowing which ones you are alluding to. Then we could watch them too and compare how well they play this type of chess. One issue for others though is are they making enough profit to play anything like Apple and Samsung’s version of chess?

  • Horace, I wonder if you have any thoughts on mobile’s impact on the semiconductors industry. With rise of mobile, and ARM, it seems many IC companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm and Marvell are trying to get a bigger share of the value chain by integrating with an ARM cpu. None of these companies were in the cpu business 4 or 5 years ago. This is an untold story and nobody has really done any analysis on. At least not in public domain. I feel it has very far reaching implications. Would be great if you shed some light there.

    Many people have looked at the Windows side of Wintel. We need some intelligent analysis on the Intel side.

    Great original work, Horace. A big fan.

      • Thanks Horace. I must have read that post and forgotten about it. That is exactly my conclusion now. Intel’s problem is the extreme abundance of IP in the ARM ecosystem. It is easy to hit the exact price/power/performance/functionality point by mixing and matching these different “plug and play” IP’s into a SOC than to assemble something solely from Intel SKU’s.

        Judging from the comments on that post many people didn’t get that at the time. In fact I still see that attitude as the consensus even today. People are just looking at the power envelope of Intel CPU’s. Sure, it will hit that power target very soon if not already there. But it is just not the game that matters the most.

        Recent developments include the announcement of ARM 64 bit roadmap, AMD going to the ARM camp, and big.LITTLE. By the way big.LITTLE is another illustration of the modular flexibility in ARM designs.

        Perhaps you can dust that post off with some new data points and write a new post? It is reshaping the 100’s of billions semiconductor industry, the “silicon” in Silicon Valley.

  • Bruce_Mc

    Horace, you talked about using stagecraft in your presentations and how the iPad mini might help with that. When I was watching the recapex video I noticed your stagecraft, in a good way. From watching earlier presentations I can see you are improving over time. Keep up the good work.

  • mistervernon

    Horace, thoroughly enjoyed your theorization of Apples “interesting” CapEx. I would wager that managements confidence in the positive growth of demand in China, which of course has been mentioned before, might also help to substantiate the justification for Apple’s significant investment in capital resources in the way that you have speculated. See, “Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 5 Coming to China Earlier Than Expected: Report” http://wallstreetpit.com/97773-apples-aapl-iphone-5-coming-to-china-earlier-than-expected-report/