Sandy McMurray is a long-time technology journalist whose work has appeared in Time, the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Sun, Report on Business, Profit, and other sources. Between 1995 - 2002, Sandy wrote a weekly column about technology for the Toronto Sun, and served as Technology Editor for five Sun Media newspapers. He has been publishing on the Web since 1996. Contact:readme@mac.com
How did Apple get a good deal on flash memory from Samsung? In a word, volume. As Nivi suggests, Apple is approaching monopsony status.
The market dominance of iPod + iTunes gives Jobs and Co. negotiating power with Samsung and other hardware suppliers. And, as Nivi argues, Jobs used his keynote to highlight this fact, for the benefit of potential suppliers and partners.
