Apple’s road to GPU control: the challenges of vertical integration

There are basically two types of organizations in the computer and mobile industry, device makers who are, to the extent they can be, vertically integrated, and component or IP suppliers that offer their product or technology across several vertical product types to the device makers. Apple falls into the former camp and it seems to be trying to strengthen its control of its supply chain. A successful salesman once told me, “sales is easy, just listen to the customer—he’ll tell you what he wants to buy.” Apple has been telling Imagination Technologies for years what Apple wanted to buy, and Imagination