The Life of an Apple Supplier Is Getting Even Tougher
- Apple squeezes harder as acquisitions shrink chip supply chain
- Rising research efforts give Apple new leverage with suppliers
Why Apple Is Developing Its Own Chips
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Imagination Technologies Group Plc discovered how fickle life can be as an Apple Inc. supplier when it was ditched this month by the iPhone maker. More suppliers may suffer the same fate as the world’s largest technology company faces a shrinking number of semiconductor makers and expands into areas that need special chips designed in-house.
Dialog Semiconductor Plc, Synaptics Inc. and Cirrus Logic Inc. are particularly vulnerable to Apple’s supply chain whims and demands, according to analysts. One component supplier, Avnet Inc., stopped working with Apple because the relationship was squeezing its profit margins too much.