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0 pointsethbr04y ago0 comments

Absolutely, Apple can charge $1.5 for something everyone else can charge $1 for, but I was looking it from a cost of goods sold perspective, instead of pricing power.

If it costs them $1.25, and everyone else can do it for $0.75 because they have scale and capital... that doesn't seem long-term stable.

If one cloud provider becomes dominant, Apple loses. If Apple loses market share, they lose negotiation power, and Apple loses.

The only way Apple wins is if cloud stays a multi-polar race AND Apple stays cloud-portable AND Apple retains significant market share AND cloud stays commoditized.

I'm not saying it's a bad bet (I'm sure Wall Street loves the resulting financials), but it does seem like a dangerous long term strategy, if cloud becomes more of product.

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ksec4y ago

>If one cloud provider becomes dominant, Apple loses.

Apple has been basically funding Azure Expansion. Microsoft needed Apple to scale their Cloud business in a multi-year contract. And Apple using Microsoft to drive AWS price down. I think for one reason or another ( politics, strategic, or technical ) they have avoided GCP. Apple also partner with other Cloud Services Provider in different Region. And they are doing exactly what you described as Multi Cloud. Even their CDN are split between Akamai, ( used to be Limestone and they switch to something else I cant remember ) and their own.

I would not be surprised if their next move is to fund Cloudflare R2 Storage services. ( Once it becomes mature enough )

mkr-hn4y ago

It's an interesting turn. Microsoft invested $150 million to save Apple long ago, now Apple is investing in Microsoft's services platform as they both try to transition into services companies.

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