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0 pointsargsnd2y ago0 comments

Why are you excluding iOS devices?

0 comments

For anyone curious, iPhones ship 234 million a year, Watch around 60 million, iPad another 20 million. Not sure about Apple TV but let's assume that's 0. That's over 300 million CPUs a year.

I doubt the total chip number for the industry though - Intel alone ships ~100M. But it's clear Apple is very likely the largest manufacturer of CPUs.

* Correction: MediaTek shipped 350M units in 2020 and Qualcomm shipped 319M (due to the Trump embargo on China). So Apple is up there competing with manufacturers that sell their chips to anyone who will buy, but it may not necessarily be the largest.

hardware2win2y ago

>But it's clear Apple is very likely the largest manufacturer of CPUs.

Manufacturer? Where are Apple's fabs located at?

awestroke2y ago

Not TSMC, that's for sure. TSMC is using ASML machines to etch the transistors, so by your logic ASML is the biggest CPU manufacturer

1 more reply

scns2y ago

Correcting yourself, two thumbs up. Margins per CPU shipped? My first, thought was APL at least 7x MTK but i must be so far off here.

vlovich1232y ago

Yeah. How you count things is very subjective to where you draw the line. As for margins it's hard to say because Apple doesn't sell chips independently so their profit margin on a chip is withdrawn from however they want to distribute the profit margins for the entire product and Apple does not provide a breakout a sufficient level of granularity into the financials to understand that.

m0shen2y ago

Yeah margin per processor shipped is a different question, and Apple probably does very well here.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

vlovich1232y ago

For anyone curious, iPhones ship 234 million a year, Watch around 60 million, iPad another 20 million. Not sure about Apple TV but let's assume that's 0. That's over 300 million CPUs a year.

I doubt the total chip number for the industry though - Intel alone ships ~100M. But it's clear Apple is very likely the largest manufacturer of CPUs.

hardware2win2y ago

>But it's clear Apple is very likely the largest manufacturer of CPUs.

Manufacturer? Where are Apple's fabs located at?

awestroke2y ago

Not TSMC, that's for sure. TSMC is using ASML machines to etch the transistors, so by your logic ASML is the biggest CPU manufacturer

1 more reply

scns2y ago

Correcting yourself, two thumbs up. Margins per CPU shipped? My first, thought was APL at least 7x MTK but i must be so far off here.

vlovich1232y ago

m0shen2y ago

Yeah margin per processor shipped is a different question, and Apple probably does very well here.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse