Apple Dominates Supply Side

This revelation that Apple is now Samsung’s biggest customer and perhaps even has reserved if not its entirety then almost all of its NAND flash memory allotment for the year got me thinking about the Xoom. Specifically the leaked or messed up leaked price point over the weekend for 1,200 for the Xoom. Everyone laughed, including me because theres no way in hell that the Xoom despite its specs can come close to competing with the iPad in any serious way at it’s price point. With this new revelation in mind however could it just be the simple economics of it all?

Apple does control a large majority of supply of displays, touch screen displays, and NAND and because they control such a majority economies of scale takes place so they can offer the iPad at a lower price point than competitors. Which makes you think if Apple hasn’t only 1. secured such a great supply of components to meet consumer demand, but also perhaps 2. they’ve done so in Machiavelli style to ensure no one can economically meet them at price.

Either way very interesting. What do you think?