Goldman Sachs Drops Knowledge About Apple's Ecosystem, Lays Out Key Areas Suppliers Should Focus On

Goldman Sachs produced a 69-page report on Apple Inc. AAPL's ecosystem, the firm's supplier chain, and the likely hot sectors and developments to monitor going forward.

The focus of this piece is on the idea that some of Apple's suppliers have positioned themselves well within the Apple ecosystem in terms of profit/revenues. Whether well positioned in the Apple ecosystem or not, Apple suppliers will need to figure out ways to survive without the saving grace of a firm that arguably has lost its innovative edge.

Goldman's team has concern for Apple's suppliers in lieu of the challenging iPhone growth. The firm believes suppliers need to secure a share of Apple's profit pool, as well as develop new technologies to tap into other profit centers around the world.

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Within the supplier universe, Goldman's team lead Daiki Takayama laid out the structure of the playing field:

• Leaders - Broadcom, GoerTek, Nidec, Murata Mfg., Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, TDK, and Samsung Electronics.
• Strong Dependents - Largan, Alps Electric, LuxshaRE, SK Hynix, Taiyo Yuden, TPK, AAX Technologies, Sony.
• Transformers - Qualcomm, NXP Semiconductors, Skyworks Solutions, Nitto Denko, Hon Hai Precision.
• Laggards - Jabil Circuit JBL, Wistron, Toshiba, Ibiden, Minebea, Pegatron, Hirose, Seagate, Japan Display.

The following is Goldman's quadrant image of the above four categories:

Digging deeper into where the suppliers fit in Apple's supply chain yields a better understanding of the cross-section of Apple suppliers that fall under Goldman's coverage universe:

Of Apple's 195 suppliers, Goldman has coverage reports on 51. The following image is Goldman's breakdown of the characteristics of that group of 51:

Rest assured, there's enough here to keep CNBC and other outlets plugging all day about the tech giant.