Like Voldemort, why is the name Apple not spoken by suppliers?

considered as Camel The American company that dominates the smartphone market either by revenue value or by market directive is a familiar name and is the most important customer of other companies and suppliers However, like Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, no supplier or company dares to utter its name instead, it is spoken It has other names, what is the secret behind this?

Fuji Corporation

In Asia, the apple is referred to as the "fruit company" or sometimes "fuji" in reference to a specific type of apple grown in Japan. Other designations include "the Three Trillion Dollar Company" and "Respectable North American Customer", sometimes with a letter " A".

In the January stock filing, O-Film Group, a Chinese manufacturer of smartphone camera modules, said it incurred a $426 million loss in 2021 and one of the reasons was losing business with a “certain overseas customer,” which customer? The spokesperson for the Chinese company did not disclose this important customer.

The reluctance to spell the remaining four letters after the letter “A” is more than just a custom, as a file appeared in a case related to the bankruptcy of a previous supplier, detailing a confidentiality agreement between the supplier and the customer (Apple), and one of the terms of that agreement was that the supplier pay 50 million dollars In the event of any violation of the terms and the violations were determined to include trade secrets and also the supplier's relationship with the iPhone maker.

The company whose name should not be pronounced

In 2020, the supplier world was talking about the spread of the Corona pandemic and that there would likely be a delay in the usual launch of flagship phones that put an elegant image of partially eaten fruit on the back, and on a call with investors, said Hock E Tan, CEO of Broadcom, which designs chips for devices The iPhone said that the company's revenues would be affected by the lack of components and the accompanying delay in the product cycle for "their largest customer in North America."

On the other hand, Samsung's Galaxy phones are the main competitor to the company's flagship product which should not be named but the Korean company also provides screens and other parts for this product (iPhone). However, Samsung employees sometimes referred to their archenemy by the nickname LO which An acronym for "Lovely Opponent," according to people familiar with the matter. Employees of the company, which no one dares to say, refer to the Korean giant by its real name, Samsung.

Apple lovers and relatives

We turn to the main supplier, the giant Foxconn, which has been working with the iPhone maker for decades and is by far the largest assembler of its smart phones. Calling it "Big A".

For its part, TSMC Semiconductor, which makes processors and other chips for the smartphone, twice mentioned its ally in its annual report not as a customer but as an issuer of bonds (most bond issuers are governments, banks or legal entities) held by the Taiwanese company.

Why is the name Apple not mentioned?

Unlike Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series, Apple does not cast a deadly spell or speak to snakes if anyone dares mention their name. However, the American company has frightening powers and influence, and can award or cancel contracts for parts and electronic services worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is why public supplier presentations and even private conversations rarely include the name of the company they are discussing for fear of being offended in some way or accidentally revealing competitive information.

In the end, the iPhone maker has a certain method in dealing with other companies as it is sensitive about the relationship with suppliers, and if it finds any abuses, the supplier puts the supplier on a waiting list until those problems are modified or removed permanently from the list and replaced with another supplier and for this the American company that we cannot Mention her name by making an annual list of her top 200 suppliers.

Source:

wsj