“Apple’s buyout of Israel-based solid-state drive (SSD) manufacturer Anobit Technologies will give the company a significant technological boost in the mobile market, and the deal could yield huge cost savings,” Lucas Mearian reports for Computerworld.
“Apple is the industry’s largest NAND flash consumer, so acquiring Anobit gives it a means of addressing the reliability problems that arise as solid-state memory shrinks in size,” Mearian reports. “According to published reports, Apple will pay around $500 million for Anobit. It sees the purchase of a NAND flash technology developer as key to its product strategy going forward. The acquisition of Anobit would be Apple’s largest purchase since it bought NeXT in 1996.”
Mearian reports, “The purchase of Anobit addresses several issues for Apple. It frees the company from dependency on flash component makers such as Samsung and Intel, which lead the market in NAND flash production. Using Anobit’s controller technology — a type of error correction code (ECC) — would allow Apple to choose the cheapest NAND flash chip inventory available for its products. ‘It could ultimately impact the cost of the NAND flash they buy if they’re able to continue to develop [technology] that allows them to use the cheapest flash possible,’ said Michael Yang, a memory and storage analyst at market research firm IHS iSuppli.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Anobit acquisition keeps Apple ahead in flash memory – December 22, 2011
Apple reportedly closes Anobit deal for $400-$500 million – December 20, 2011
Inside Anobit: Why Apple is investing in flash RAM technology – December 15, 2011
Apple to build semiconductor R&D center in Israel, sources say – December 14, 2011
Magical technology: Why Apple is buying Anobit – December 14, 2011
Apple moves to take over flash memory industry from Samsung – December 13, 2011
Analysts see competitive advantages for Apple in Anobit buy – December 13, 2011
Apple reportedly buying Israeli flash memory company Anobit for upwards of $500 million – December 13, 2011
Perhaps, but I don’t see it that way. Apple isn’t necessarily going to settle for the bottom tier of the NAND production stream for its products, while relying on Anobit’s controller to maintain data integrity, just to save money.
I was thinking Apple bought Anobit so that it could ensure its products are getting the choicest cuts in NAND’s three-tier production stream of good-better-best quality, especially for their phones and iPads.
I agree. I could see how costs could come down, but I don’t think that was the focus. Apple has always been about having a superior product.
Agreed. Lucas Mearian/Computerworld is applying PC tactics to Apple. That is misguided. Apple is about improvement.
It is all about improving quality, increasing or maintaining margins, and slowing or making it harder for the competition to copy. I am sure there are nice patents behind the scene to protect against tech copy without shame companies such as samsung.
Go Apple
I think that Apple has learned the hard way that relying on courts to protect innovation is an expensive and unreliable approach. Many others have copied Apple’s products and the courts have not been an effective deterrent.
My feeling is that Apple is taking a different approach. Instead of pinning it’s hopes on legal protection, Apple is developing it’s own technology and buying other promising companies that offer something unique for the future. Apple is particularly interested in technologies that offer high performance coupled with frugal power consumption. Hence Apple’s interest in flash memory instead of hard drives.
Additionally, if you design chips in house, they can be built anywhere in the world where a suitable fabrication plant exists. Apple would not be tied to one supplier, or even one region of the world. It can decide to use multiple suppliers in order to maintain continuity of supply in the event of unpredictable happenings like the Japanese tsunami, the Taiwanese floods, major earthquakes or political turmoil.
The principle benefit to Apple is that they will be able to incorporate exclusive components that are at the very cutting edge of technology and are unavailable to others. After all, knock-off companies would not be able to make clones if they are unable to source the parts in the first place.