“We only get into this when we think we can do something better”

What drives Apple to make its own components instead of buying them on the market? That’s the question an analyst asked last night at Apple’s financial results conference. The question is very topical, when we find an Apple in the middle of the biggest architectural transition in its history.

The difference between buying or making something for Apple

Dur Kumar is a CEO of Citi Investment Bank

, also known as Citigroup. This analyst attended Apple’s shareholders conference, which is still held by phone. At question time, Kumar wanted to know “how Apple determines what is strategic and what brings Apple to do it itself and what is not”. The answer came from Cook himself:

The way we decide to do [los chips]We wonder if we can do better, if we can deliver a better product, if we can buy something from the market. And it’s great, if it’s as good as we could possibly make it, we’ll buy it. We will only enter where we believe we have the capacity to do something better and therefore create a better product for the user.

Cook continues to give the example of the M1 chip. Talk about how they created a chip that is superior

what they could buy on the market, clearly referring to Intel. And how they combined their hardware and software expertise to create the M1. For the executive, the market response, despite the supply restrictions, has been “unbelievable”.

For Apple, the launch of its own chips was a strategic decision taken ten years ago. One that continues to bear fruit many years later, differentiating its products from others and becoming independent from suppliers with agendas, interests, priorities and roadmaps that don’t always coincide with Apple.