At yesterday's financial results conference, very interesting information almost hit us: Peter Oppenheimer, in the opening statements of the event, announced that Apple has secured a $ 3.9 billion contract over two years to secure the acquisition a type of “very strategic” component for your products.
But what could that be? Tim Cook declined to say specifically, but drew an analogy with something we already know:
Looking at the operational side of the house, as you probably remember, throughout our history we have entered into certain agreements with different people to ensure the offer and other benefits. The biggest one in the recent past was when we signed a contract with several flash (memory) producers in late 2005, for a total of more than US $ 1 billion, as we anticipate that flash would be increasingly important in our entire product line and in the entire industry. We wanted to secure supplies for our company. We think this was an absolutely fantastic use of Apple's money, and we are constantly looking for more (uses) of these. Then, in the past few quarters, we identified another area and closed some recent deals that Peter (Oppenheimer) spoke of in his opening comments. These payments consist of prepayments and capital for equipment and tools. And, similar to the flash memory agreement, they are focused on an area that we feel is very strategic. So I prefer not to go into more detail about what this area is, but it was the same reasoning that led us to these agreements.
There, now everyone wants to know what the object of this agreement would be. O Engadget betting on high-resolution LCDs, John Gruber says that it would be something to do with touchscreen technology (which can still be the case), the AppleInsider raises several possibilities, ranging from the Retina screens to the successors of the A4 processor and batteries.
One thing is certain: when this component disappears from the market and no competitor was able to find it for sale to use in its own products, we will know what it is about Apple has this habit of draining the production chain.
I bet like this investment in Nutella: all of Ma's products in 2011 will be filled with this delicious delicacy, there will be none left on the shelves.
