So because Apple makes higher profit, they purchase a higher proportion of the highest quality parts. And the fact that they choose to purchase from Asia is bad because we want domestic production? I guess I can buy it, but I feel like this is more of a failure of American fabs more than anything.
But the 85% figure is almost certainly profit, not revenue. In that case using that as a proxy for units sold is so absurd that it's bordering on bad faith argumentation.
It really isn't. Apple pays insanely well to exclusively use TSMC top tier node. I would not be surprised if the SoC in an iphone costs Apple 10 times as much as the average android phone SoC.
The “average” SoC or the high end ones in flagships? Don’t be surprised at how much Qualcomm charges for their flagship stuff. Even if Qualcomm is a node behind, they also need their “margin” for making the thing. Apple pays a big design team, but they don’t pay the additional margin on the SoC… just whatever TSMC charges. Remember, Qualcomm has to pay TSMC too.
