“When you think about Apple’s strategic advantage over competitors, the fact that it has the brains of Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ives [sic] and other top visionaries usually lands at the top of the list,” Tim Bajarin writes for PC Magazine. “It’s true that having this type of brainpower at the head of the company gives it quite an advantage over its competition. But it would be a mistake to think that only these few are the only driving force behind all of Apple’s products and long term strategy. Indeed, as I understand it, the visions that drive Apple are a collaborative effort.”

Bajarin writes, “Apple recently disclosed that it pre-bought $7.9 billion in components in Taiwan, and China says that Apple bought up as much as 60% of the available touch screens in the market. So how does this impact its competitors? Apple gets a huge price break because of the quantity it purchases. Apple can do this for two reasons. First, it has the cash. Secondly, it has an assurance that there will be actual customer demand for its products and that it can sell all of the products it makes with these screens.”

“Apple’s strategic advantage is in high gear here and unless… competitors can match its buying power, Apple will continue to have at least a one to two year lead on them with pricing alone,” Bajarin writes. “Now add to this Apple’s attention to details and focused brainpower and you get a better sense of how Apple’s strategic advantage is a rather big one.”

Read more in the full article – recommended – here.