Re:Apple gold
by snowwrestler on Saturday March 07, 2015 @09:12PM
(#9164173)
One of the underappreciated competitive advantages of Apple is their ability to scale complex industrial processes for consumer products.
Going back to the first iMac, their industrial design work has included developing or scaling new manufacturing techniques. Examples include co-molding white and clear plastic to get the liquid look of the iPod, and of course machining laptop bodies out of aluminum blocks.
If there is a company who could make this work at consumer scale, it's Apple.
Most MMCs replace base metals that cost a few dollars per kilogram. Gold currently trades at ~$37,000/kg. Even comparing against a relatively costly base metal like tungsten, gold is three orders of magnitude more expensive. Spending $100 or even $1000 per kg to halve the density of a given volume of material vastly increases the cost of aluminium, but greatly reduces the cost of gold.
I have absolutely no doubt that Apple could significantly reduce their materials cost by using this process.