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🐂 AAPL — Company Profile (Teaching)

Teaching site, not investment advice. Specific market cap / stock price / financial figures change frequently and are intentionally omitted; use the SEC + Yahoo Finance links below to pull real-time data yourself.

📌 Basics

Dimension Content Source
Core business iPhone (~50%+ revenue) + Mac + iPad + Wearables (Watch / AirPods / Vision Pro) + Services (App Store / iCloud / Apple TV+ / Apple Pay / Music) 10-K
Founded / HQ 1976 / Cupertino, California, USA wiki
CEO Tim Cook (since 2011/08, succeeded Steve Jobs) DEF 14A
Primary listing NASDAQ: AAPL —
Fiscal year Ends late September (FY26 Q1 = Oct-Dec 2025, reported 2026/01-02) SEC EDGAR

💡 Real-time market cap / share price / iPhone unit sales / Services growth: see SEC primary + IR links below.

🏭 Supply Chain Coordinates (Part 1-C6 framework)

Upstream (Who AAPL Depends On)

Supplier What flows Key dependency
TSM All iPhone A-series + Mac M-series SoC at TSM — TSM's #1 customer (~25% of TSM revenue) Irreplaceable
AVGO iPhone Wi-Fi + RF wireless chips Long-term (AAPL self-developing N1/Proxima; W1 is AirPods, not iPhone Wi-Fi)
QCOM iPhone modem (5G), in transition with Apple's in-house C1 modem Weakening
SSNLF + LGD + BOE OLED displays Multi-source
SKH / MU / SSNLF DRAM + NAND storage Multi-source
Foxconn / Hon Hai (2317.TW primary listing; HNHPF / HNHAF US OTC) + Pegatron (4938.TW) + Luxshare (002475.SZ) iPhone assembly China + India diversification
Global battery (ATL Amperex Technology — TDK subsidiary, consumer Li-ion; SDI Samsung SDI; CATL 300750.SZ is a separate company) iPhone / Mac batteries Multi-source

Downstream (Who Depends on AAPL)

Customer Relationship Concentration
Global iPhone consumers (~1B active iPhones) C2B direct relationship Highly diversified
App Store developers (30% commission, dropping to 27% / EU different) Two-sided platform Highly diversified
GOOGL iOS default search engine contract ($20B+/yr, antitrust dispute) Strategic mega-deal
Global telecoms iPhone channel Multi-source

Competitors

  • Smartphones: SSNLF Samsung Galaxy / Huawei (China + selected international) / Xiaomi (1810.HK) / Oppo / vivo
  • AI assistant / LLM integration: AAPL partners with OPENAI ChatGPT (iOS 18 integration) + in-house Apple Intelligence (Apple Foundation Model)
  • Wearables: Samsung Galaxy Watch / Garmin (GRMN) / Fitbit (GOOGL)
  • VR/AR: META Quest (but AAPL Vision Pro 2 scrapped after M5, LEDGER F-071)
  • Services: Spotify (SPOT) / Netflix (NFLX) / Disney+ (DIS)

💼 Business Model + Value Capture (Part 1-C7 view)

  • Revenue mix: iPhone ~50%+ / Services ~25%+ (high GM) / Mac ~10% / iPad + Wearables ~15%
  • Gross margin: Overall ~45% (Services ~70% GM, Products ~37% GM)
  • Pricing power: iPhone ASP continuously rising; Pro Max series priced at $1500+; Services price increases — extremely strong
  • Substitution difficulty: Extremely high — iCloud + iMessage + App Store + Apple ecosystem (Watch / AirPods / Mac synergy) locks consumers in for 5-10 years

(For specific quarterly revenue / iPhone units / Services growth / gross margin, see the latest SEC 10-Q.)

🏰 Moat Assessment (Part 3-C2 Buffett 5-step lens)

Type Strength (0-1) Source
Brand 1.0 World's strongest consumer brand (Interbrand #1 for many years)
Switching cost 1.0 Apple ecosystem full device suite + iCloud + iMessage 30-year lock-in
Network effects 0.7 iMessage / FaceTime / App Store two-sided / iCloud family sharing
Scale + cost 0.9 Global supply chain scale + TSM priority foundry + massive buyback program

Composite: 3.6 / 4 → extremely strong consumer brand moat, but AI strategy lagging + Services regulatory antitrust risk

⚠️ Key Reverse-Trigger Conditions (Part 3-C5 anti-thesis view)

  • Trigger 1 (event): DOJ vs. Google antitrust ruling forces cancellation of $20B+/yr Google search default — Services revenue impact
  • Trigger 2 (quarterly): iPhone unit sales decline YoY for 4 consecutive quarters — replacement cycle break signal
  • Trigger 3 (annual): Apple Intelligence (Apple in-house AI) persistently lags OpenAI / Anthropic / Google — AI strategy failure
  • Trigger 4 (event): China market iPhone share continuously declines (vs. Huawei counterattack) — Greater China revenue impact
  • Trigger 5 (low probability): EU + global regulation forces App Store 30% commission significant cut — Services high GM impact

🔗 Teaching Cross-References

📚 SEC Primary Filings (look it up yourself)

Real-time quote: Yahoo Finance AAPL

Teaching use · numbers change — learn the method, not the specific figures · investment decisions are based on your own research + risk tolerance