The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 95 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Apple ships more watches annually than the entire Swiss watch industry
“Apple alone ships way more Apple watches every year than the entire Swiss watch industry.”
Chang: TSMC did not include Apple in 28nm capex expansion
“Because when we figured a very big market for 28 and therefore when we planned to increase vastly our capital spending, we didn't have Apple in mind. We didn't include Apple. Apple came strictly as a present surprise.”
Chang: TSMC launched 16nm six months later and won most Apple orders
“We developed, we had our own 16 about half a year later, and most of Apple's 60 nanometer requirements still belonged to us.”
Chang: Apple was not actively considering Intel foundry in 2010
“No, Apple Was not actively considering intel. That came later.”
Chang: TSMC R&D could not develop two nodes concurrently in 2010
“The point is that back then, R&D did not have enough resources to do two notes at the same time. Later we did. Later we did.”
Chang: Apple rejects unprompted supplier pitches until they are ready
“Apple is a very close mouthed company. If you try to talk with, if you offer, you know, your service, I mean, they will just tell you to go away, you know. They will come to see you when they are ready, you That's what I knew about Apple, even then, and I knew…”
TSMC invested $9 billion and 6,000 workers to build Apple's dedicated fab
“And for TSMC, it meant an initial investment of nine billion dollars, Fabs are expensive to build, and devoting 6000 employees to building a dedicated plant for Apple in just 11 months.”
Gilbert: Meta CFO Projected $10 Billion Impact From Apple's ATT in 2022
“The CFO kind of casually says in a response to someone, oh, we think that the, Impact from ATT to our ad business will end up costing us on the order of ten billion dollars for twenty-twenty-two.”
Gilbert: iPhone shifted mobile from cheap embedded systems to full computers
“The mobile industry to this point had been, how do I make the cheapest possible phone? It's certainly not a scaled down version of a Mac, which is what the iPhone was. So that was a completely different paradigm. This is a tiny computer, not a kind of crappy e…”
Gilbert: Apple makes around $20 billion annually from Google default search
“The rumors are that Apple makes something on the order of twenty billion dollars a year today in 2024 from Google as being the front door to Google, sending all of the iPhone search traffic to Google.”
Gilbert: iPads failed to replace PCs, whereas smartphones largely succeeded
“The iPad was not the PC of the future. It had its place, but it did not in any way replace PCs And it turns out that Apple scaling up the iPhone metaphor was good for tablets, but that never was gonna take over most PC use cases today. In fact, the phone has f…”
Gilbert: iPhone launch was the most spectacular demo since Engelbart
“The iPhone comes out. It's the most spectacular technology demo since The mother of all demos, the old Doug Engelbart one way back in the day.”
Gilbert: Large external ecosystem dependencies make technology resets much harder
“The more externalities you have depending on you, the more difficult it is to reset, and usually a next generation technology requires you to hit a big reset button.”
Gilbert: Windows Phone Lost When Verizon Backed Motorola Droid Over Microsoft
“I think the biggest moment when the door really shut is when Verizon freaked out after the Apple and AT&T deal and said, we need an answer, and they decided that answer was Droid, and they put like a gajillion dollars behind the Droid advertising campaign.”
Gilbert: Young professionals should learn end-to-end individual economic production
“When you're a young person, you should try to become singularly productive. And I mean productive in the economic sense. That you are able to soup to nuts within your control, make something of economic value, and put it in the world in a way that you own the …”
Apple Pay takes 15 basis points, roughly matching Visa's revenue cut
“So on a Apple Pay transaction, I'm pretty sure Apple makes about as much as Visa does, because they stack an extra 15 basis points on top of the other three fees that we talked about.”
Berkshire Hathaway bought Apple when its valuation fell to 10x earnings
“Yeah, well, it got cheap. It got it did about 10 times or anything more.”
Munger prefers investing in consumer brand power over semiconductor foundries
“Well, I don't like that as well as I like something with a real consumer brand of its own like Apple.”
Steve Jobs Ripped Off Edwin Land's Tech and Liberal Arts Line
“Like when we used to watch the presentations that Steve would give, where he's like, oh, we're building at the intersection of technology and liberal... Arts. He put it up on the screen. He ripped that off wholesale. It is literally Edwin Land said that exact …”
Rosenthal: Sequoia invested $150k in Apple and sold entirely for $6M
“Ah, Don invested a 150,000 in Apple computer in 1977.
And then, 18 months later, they had an opportunity to realize one of the greatest venture returns of all time.
They made a forty-X on that investment.
They sold their shares for six
Million dollars before t…”
Gilbert: NVIDIA generates a 37% operating margin, beating Apple
“Another one that I wanted to point out, it's a freaking hardware company, I know we didn't, they're not a hardware company, but they're a hardware company, with 37% operating margins, so this is even better than Apple”
Only Apple has the balance sheet to rival Meta in VR
“I think Meta is investing just gobs and gobs of money and talent and everything into the next five versions of the, you know, MetaQuest and everything that's gonna come after that, and I don't know, at this point I'm not sure there's a balance sheet deep enoug…”
Apple Reversed Its Apple Music Trial Royalty Policy Within 24 Hours
“Literally within 24 hours, Apple changes its stance because of Taylor.”
Bathgate: Cadence is taking digital EDA market share from Synopsys
“We do think they're taking market share, especially in digital markets, like where they would be selling to an Intel or an Apple or an Nvidia. We think they're the share gainer, but both companies, it's like an extremely high quality duopoly.”
The Original iPhone Relied on Built-In Google Maps and YouTube Apps
“There are two apps that launch in the very first version of the iPhone. Remember, it didn't have an app store. It was not open to third-party developers. There is a YouTube app and a Maps app, both of which are Google services. Now, the apps are written by App…”
Rosenthal: Apple Silicon traces from ARM and DEC through Intel and P.A. Semi
“Lineage of all of Apple Silicon, probably the most valuable, defensible part of Apple today in terms of technology, was Armandec to Intel to PA Semi to Apple.”
Apple's early iPhones relied on off-the-shelf Samsung processors
“They weren't designing their own chips. They just used an off-the-shelf Samsung chip.”
Ben Gilbert: Apple and Tiffany lead retail with $5,500 and $3,000 sales per foot
“Costco is 1800 dollars a foot. They are trying to maximize their dollar per foot. Walmart is about 600. Target is about 450 dollars. And then these, like, crazy businesses, just to compare it to the all-time greatest, Tiffany is 3000 dollars a foot for jewelry…”
Gilbert: Mobile app updates took two weeks for review in 2012
“And at this point in time, there was approximately a two-week delay between pushing an update and it being reviewed and accepted.”
Rosenthal: Mac Accounts for 8% of the PC Market in 2024
“Even today, in twenty-twenty-four, Mac sales are eight percent of the market.”
Apple licensing Microsoft BASIC in 1977 was their first commercial deal
“And that's the first deal that happens between the companies. I mean, there's so many deals done both directions, commercial deals, equity deals, legal disputes in both directions. And this is the very first time that they do something together.”
The first version of Microsoft Excel was built for the Macintosh
“Far and away, the first thing to point out is the first version of Microsoft Excel was for the Mac.”
Steve Jobs showed Bill Gates the Mac project in 1981
“Steve Jobs Shows Bill Gates the Mac project in 1981. Three years before it ships. And Microsoft and Apple signed an agreement to work together on applications for it in 1982.”
Microsoft licensed BASIC to Apple for $31,000 over eight years
“So like the Apple deal is 31,000 dollars for eight years. Of access for Apple, for the Apple II to Microsoft's BASIC.”
Microsoft announced Windows in 1983 prior to the Mac's launch
“Starting in 1983, they're like, we gotta Do our own graphical operating system, or at least user interface, and this is the origins of the Windows product, and they actually announced it in November of 1983 before the Mac ends up shipping, which their partner …”
Genentech was the largest venture-backed IPO until Apple's debut
“They go public and it is, I believe the largest venture backed IPO ever at that time. Until it's eclipsed two months later when Apple goes public.”
Berkshire Hathaway invested $30 billion into Apple, not hundreds of billions
“We didn't put hundreds of billions, but we put a thirty billion into it.”
Tim Cook Joined Nike's Board in 2005, Launching Nike+ iPod
“Tim joins Nike's board. I believe in, like, late 2005 he joined the board. He immediately starts helping Nike into understanding how to use digital technology to transform their business. And in 2006, they launched the Nike Plus iPod.”
Nike Held Its IPO the Same Week as Apple in 1980
“So, Nike IPOs, the second week of December in 1980, the same week as Apple.”
Porsche Generates a 29% Gross Margin Compared to Apple's 43%
“Porsche is a 29% gross margin. Apple's a 43% gross margin.”
Steve Jobs Personally Approved Every Single Apple Advertisement in Weekly Meetings
“Every Wednesday at like three o'clock or I forgot the time, they had like a three hour meeting. He would approve, have to approve every single piece of advertising marketing that went out for Apple. There's not a fucking billboard in Kentucky that went out wit…”
Apple Paid Qualcomm $4.5B in 2019 for Six-Year Patent Licenses
“Apple also paid four billion, now switching over to the licensing side of the house to secure the patent licenses over the next six years. I think it was four and a half billion dollars for a six year deal.”
Gilbert: NVIDIA trades at 3x Apple's P/S and 2x Microsoft's
“Nvidia has literally three times the price to sales ratio of Apple, or price to revenue as Apple, and nearly two x Microsoft.”
Apple's revenue grows at 30% annually compared to Sony's 15%
“Apple is also growing their revenue twice as fast, even with the crazy high numbers that they have today at 30% per year versus Sony's 15% per year.”
Gilbert: Venrock was an early investor in Apple Computer
“Venrock was one of the earliest investors in none other than Apple Computer.”