Karma’s a bitch Apple, and your reckoning is coming

And I’m just guessing here, but I think Apple might have more trouble finding anyone willing to play ball after this because everyone has seen how Apple treats their “partners”.

Basically I’m saying that Apple climbed up and hung itself over that barrel, and they have no one to blame but themselves. It’s not Samsung’s place to worry if Apple customers are “up in arms”. And I doubt the US judiciary will be as much help on this one, given that Samsung is a Korean company and the international courts have been much less kind to Apple.

That’s the ticket. It’s easy to pretend that there are 10 companies willing and able to do business with Apple at the drop of a hat, but there aren’t; they can’t all manage the technology and chip capacities that Apple needs, at least not without months of completing existing contracts, modifying plants and growing the workforce. If Samsung raised prices by a steep amount just to retaliate against Apple for its lawsuits, it would be knowingly holding Apple over a barrel. Since Apple can’t just pick up and move its business on a few weeks’ notice, it would have to either slash profits or accept possible supply shortages, all while Samsung and other companies went without a similar penalty.

And how does a price hike stifle competition? Like kg said, Samsung isn’t the only ones making components. If you don’t like the price, this is the free market. Go get your parts somewhere else.

Samsung is entirely within its rights to increase prices for the sake of profit. But if it’s a steep hike targeted at one company and meant primarily to stifle competition, it’s against many antitrust laws. Any large company in a feud with a rival is certainly going to be watched closely.

Apple can and is diversifying, but Samsung is well-known as one of (if not the) largest component makers; switching away isn’t just an impulsive move.