Under Control How Apple Has Handled It (Part II)

Last week, we looked at how Apple’s continued push for innovation can nonetheless be stymied by the company’s heavy reliance on the likes of Samsung, Intel and Qualcomm.

- Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

These are all examples of companies which produce components for Apple devices but, at one point or another, have landed a place in the Cupertino firm’s bad books. Recently, however, Apple has been relinquishing its dependence on such partners by taking more control over the parts that go into its devices.

HOW THE QUALCOMM QUARREL COULD BE EXTINGUISHED

In many ways, Apple has long taken pride in providing seamlessly integrated products and services. It is, after all, still the only major player to hold a firm grip over both the hardware and software of its smartphones, with Google’s own Pixel devices yet to seriously impact iPhone sales. Therefore, it makes sense that Apple would want to start exerting a higher degree of control over its devices’ silicon, too. As we detailed last week, Apple has already made some major steps down this road.

In making these steps, Apple has followed through with former CEO Steve Jobs’ philosophy that the company should own its products’ silicon rather than task various third-party chipmakers with “chipping in” - to use an inadvertent pun - by helping to make the components. Under Jobs’ stewardship, Apple acquired boutique chip maker P.A. Semi in 2008. A couple of years later, Apple took the veil off the iPad and, with it, Apple’s first processor of in-house design: the A4 chip.

This was Apple’s first “system-on-a-chip”, Bloomberg explains - and, each year since this chip was unveiled, Apple has announced a new family of processors intended to build upon the power packed into what came before. Today, someone buying a new iPhone is also picking up a highly tailored processor that enables sophisticated artificial intelligence, step-tracking, impressive game graphics and the securing of user data for the device’s Touch ID or Face ID unlocking system.