Apple Buys Israeli Flash Manufacturer

Lucas123 writes "According to published reports Apple is plunking down up to $500 million to purchase solid-state drive start-up Anobit Technologies. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted about the deal congratulating Apple on its first acquisition in his country. Apple is planning to use the acquisition to set up to set up a semiconductor development center in Israel. Apple already uses NAND flash from Anobit in its iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air products, according to the reports."

IP Related move?

[Guppy]

Coupled with their ARM CPU developments, I think Apple is attempting to remove their dependency on component makers such as Samsung (or at least gain some IP to use as leverage). I wouldn't be surprised if Apple starts some Flash-related patent wars in a few more years.

Re:Vertical Integration

[jandrese]

Seems likely to me that Apple has had enough of crappy SSD controllers causing problems on its notebooks (especially the Air) and wants to finally get it done right. It could also be a competitive advantage to be the company with the best drive controllers.

More patents

[james_van]

Good move on Apple's part- buy the developer and retain the patents for anything new and novel coming out of there, but continue to outsource the fabrication. It's everything that was good about vertical integration, minus the bad (costs of retooling, slow response times). Couple this with locked in deals with manufacturers and Apple is setting itself up for an even stronger market domination. Say what you want about them (evil, controlling, walled-garden, doo-doo heads), they're not stupid over there. And keep in mind, the company is now run by the guy who was in charge of the supply chain. We're gonna be hearing alot more stories like this in the near future. Love them or hate them, Apple is running their business very very right.

Re:Vertical Integration

[Em Adespoton]

Yes, but then Apple will have to start building new fab plants as the tech becomes obsolete. There's a reason why most companies, like Apple, buy all their tech from elsewhere. It costs a bloody fortune to cycle plant tech, and the reason why we have so few players. It cost billions to build the buggers.

Well, Apple has the billions to spend, and this way, they can take the technology in the direction they want to go, instead of having to go the way the SS industry decides to go. Fabulous decision, IMHO.

Re:IP Related move?

[BasilBrush]

I think you have a good point there. Samsung gets a lot of business from Apple as a supplier of flash chips. And yet at the same time they are ripping off Apple's device designs. Apple must be quite keen to ditch them as a supplier as soon as is possible.

Re:Huh?

[Jeng]

Well, until we can re-legalize slavery in the U.S.

That would never go over, with slaves you have to pay for their food, for their clothing, for their medical care, and for their housing.

Paying someone minimum wage is way cheaper than slave labor.

Re:Damn Apple and its unbridled success

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why I use OS X. /bin/bash FTW!

Re:Further soiling Apple's name

[WorldPiece]

You swing around the phrase "ethnic cleansing" as a political slogan while ignoring its content. I can accept 'occupation' as a description, but there is a significant lack of cleansing involved. Israel receives disproportional bad press, whilst so many terrible bad things go on on a daily basis in the world with literally no coverage at all. And again, you saying Israel is just racist is the most racist thing of all. The fact that an Israeli newspaper has the sort of article you link to proves that. Things aren't black and white, there is much beneath the surface, too much to over simplify.