“The Wall Street Journal last night confirmed many of my predictions for the iPad 2.0, while Apple drives the display industry to meet massive demand for high-resolution displays for mobile devices,” Jonny Evans reports or Computerworld.
“Apple COO Tim Cook has also used his skills in inventory and supply management to create critical barriers to limit the impact of competitors in the space,” Evans reports. “Component suppliers are already seeing strong returns for their part in the Apple ecosystem, with display manufacturers especially thrilled. That’s because spending on new plant for the manufacture of low temperature polysilicon (LTPS)-based displays is going to reach a record $2.4 billion in 2011, DisplaySearch has said.”
Evans reports, “Apple’s strategic investments are classic Tim Cook. An expert in logistics, supply management and inventory, Cook is putting up massive barriers to challenge competitors attempting to take on the iPad. While Jobs places his focus in product design, Cook has proved himself an expert in supply and production management. In the right hands, command of business systems is a lethal weapon.”
Much more in the full article here.
The bigger the bank account, the bigger the barriers that can be built.
The bigger the barriers, possibly the bigger the bank account.
Nice positive feedback loop.
It would be a shame to lose Cook in the inevitable shakeup after Jobs retires.
Apple is not focused on barriers to competition. That isn’t what they do, and it might be illegal. Tim Cook is assuring Apple’s own component supplies, which might coincidentally make supplies hard to find and expensive for others. That’s just their tough shit. Apple has always worked to compete with better devices not by dirty tricks against the competition.
How do you know that for sure?
Tim Cook will prove himself if he has managed to get a higher res display for what I am referring to as iPad-HD while keeping the price the same.
This will be a huge blow to all wannabe tablet people and will have them jump out of the windows from their glass wall executive offices.
tim’s fabulous
he has nothing to prove
Tim Cook’s ninja skills have obviously been honed under the tutelage of the ultimate ninja master, Steve Jobs.
Right now he’s painted a huge bull’s eye on the back of Android to deny them oxygen in the distribution channel by sewing up Verizon and snapping up all available high quality IPS displays to feed the iPhone and iPad evolution.
The result of this will be Android manufacturers will be painted into a corner with no possibility to secure cheap supplies of hardware components.
Wait for the shuriken blades to land on the bull’s eye in a clusterf*** pattern and embed themselves deep in the Android psyche.
@Tetrachloride
I prefer the term “vicious cycle”. It makes it seem more formidable. I can’t wait until a dozen or so Android tablet vendors, all fighting for leftover components, all run out of supplies just in time for the Christmas holiday rush. I’ll get a belly laugh for sure. Android fanbois are clueless. All this yapping about Honeycomb and they won’t have any hardware to put it on.
@@m159
NO one but the top leadership inside Apple knows for sure, but drying up competitors supplies certainly is a nice side benefit.
However, Apple also has to take a big risk because if their products don’t sell in the tens of millions, they are screwed.
BTW, what Apple is doing is called a monopsony. Instead being the only seller for something–a monopoly–they are the only buyer, or at least the only buyer buying tens of millions of units of, say, iPad displays.
Steve is unmatched in his mix of abilities in guiding Apple. Still, without Tim, it is arguable that iOS devices would have never reached the dominate price/performance point they now enjoy. Embed this hardware in the healthy ecosystem of Apple and you have a growing, expanding, system. I like the “ecosystem” analogy because Apple continues to “evolve” all their product lines.
“BTW, what Apple is doing is called a monopsony…”
uh, monopsony isn’t a word, Synth…you work for the government?
@@m159
I don’t know anything for sure, but have had close contacts within the company for years, and unless they’ve recently changed, dirty tricks are not in their culture. Apple managers certainly know their supplier contracts make it harder for others, but those contracts were negotiated to assure their own component supply, not to create barriers to competition. Restraint of trade is a serious matter, and an unacceptable risk when you are already beating the competition in the marketplace.
They have done the same thing with memory if anyone recalls…
Botvinnik;
Look it up, monopsony IS a word and is right in the dictionary. It means what he said it does, to.
If you had an iPhone, you could have looked it up before embarrassing yourself.
Tom for CEO if Jobs leaves!
As I predicted: These pro-Cook stories are going to permeate the tech and business pages right up until Jobs retires as CEO. Apple is behind most of it. They want Wall Street and the rest of “those who matter” cheering the ascendency of Tim Cook, when he is named CEO, rather than panicking over the loss of Steve Jobs. Very carefully and deftly orchestrated; and there is no company better than Apple at doing it.
Synth writes, “NO one but the top leadership inside Apple knows for sure, but drying up competitors supplies certainly is a nice side benefit.”
Were they setting out to *deliberately* dry up supplies to competitors, that would be illegal. But what they’re doing is putting up their own money to guarantee their own supplies – perfectly legal. And there’s nothing to stop HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus or others from doing likewise. But unlike Apple, they don’t have a product stream with the assured demand to justify such investments.
Or the cash.
GREAT early footage of Steve at the link.
Jobs put together a team the way only action movies dream of, but nowhere else in techland comes close. It says a lot about why Apple is where it is at, meanwhile elsewhere you may have 1 or 2 bright guys stepping up (outside their experience and expertise) to try to lead a failing management, but ultimately cannot recognize, attract, and build talents around oneself like Jobs can.
Tim Cook is a fscking genius.
I always remember reading a quote from him;
“Treat all your products like fresh milk. After 3 days, it’s sour.”
Genius. Total genius.
@Botvinnik
monopsony |məˈnäpsənē|
noun ( pl. -nies) Economics
a market situation in which there is only one buyer.
And that’s why Tim Cook is first in line for Apple CEO. I hope Steve Jobs remains CEO for a very long time, but as Apple becomes ever larger, Tim Cook’s skills as an “operations” guru are becoming ever more important to Apple. At some point, it will become MORE important for the NEXT Apple CEO to be more like Tim Cook and less like Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs filled Apple with people who think like him, with the same passion for elegance and perfection. His “DNA” is now part of Apple. The next Apple CEO needs to be a leader who can make all of those talented “think different” employees “think the same” and stay focused toward Apple’s long term goals. That leader is Tim Cook. It is NOT finding someone like Steve Jobs to replace Steve Jobs, because that’s not possible; no one is “like” Steve Jobs.
If Steve Jobs is able to remain CEO for a very long time, that’s even better, because Tim Cook seems very loyal to Steve Jobs (and happy to be at Apple), and Apple will have the best of both worlds at the top. Design excellence executed by operations excellence.
There’s running a business well.
Then there’s coming up with revolutionary products that consumers want.
Nonsense article.
Do any of us really know exactly how much Steve Jobs has to do with each and every product? Its the brilliant people behind him that make the products what they are. He may be a visionary, but MOST of the aspects of his products are realized by the company that supports him, from a technology and engineering standpoint.
I think he’s more of a great quarterback or coach then he is everything to that company. I’m a big fan of his, don’t get me wrong. I think Apple has always kept him as the front man and everyone else quite for a reason.