Learn This from Apple
Apple is a fine engineering company. And it is also a firm that does not like to get into distractions. It sells proprietary hardware [iPhone, iPad, etc] packaged with an exclusive software. Someone fabricates the chips it designs [saves cost of foundry] and another firm assembles them [reduces labor cost].
Few years ago, in Harvard Business Review print, I explained how Apple was using less than 33,000 workers to support its business when GM required about 1 million workers in 1979 for similar execution. And I went ahead to explain that Apple’s contract manufacturer [Foxconn] employs a factor of 20 more workers while generating about 10% of Apple’s revenue.
I had known that Apple has no major video hosting platform. For most of its services, you have to host somewhere else and then embed the link. It turns out that Apple does not want to get into the messy business of investing in datacenters: yes, Apple is using Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud to host iCloud. Even in abundance, Apple is showing how to manage cash.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Apple periodically publishes new versions of a PDF called the iOS Security Guide. For years the document contained language indicating that iCloud services were relying on remote data storage systems from Amazon Web Services, as well as Microsoft's Azure.
But in the latest version, the Microsoft Azure reference is gone, and in its place is Google Cloud Platform. Before the January update, Apple most recently updated the iOS Security Guide in March.
For Apple, there is no need of investing that money when Amazon and Google could do the job. For Apple, the mission is upstream capability leaving the downstream for mass shopping. It is working for Apple. You could learn that.
This firm called Apple is very intelligent and astute in virtually all its thought processes, with respect to business management and operations.
You can accuse it of being too 'dependent' on other companies for its critical components and services, and yet Apple has proven overtime that it remains peerless and the most brilliant company on earth; not just in its products, but the quality of people that run the corporation.
