I don't think it's vertically integrated in the classic sense. This isn't oil company buying supplier. It's a tech company building the complete experience including non tech parts. The end result looks more like a company that we wouldn't call vertically integrated. E.g. Uber competes with taxi companies but I don't think we'd call taxi companies vertically integrated.
It may be closer to what is sometimes called the "Whole Product"[1]. In either case, what he's talking about isn't really anything new. And it's not necessarily good for anybody involved either. There are a lot of people, for example, who don't want "Apple style end to end integration" if it means being tied to Apple for everything.
A customer who truly wants "best in class" up and down the stack still wants suppliers to adhere to something somewhat akin to the "Unix philosophy" or the idea of "small pieces, loosely joined".
This "whole product", "full stack", "vertical integration" stuff has a role to play for sure, but let's not pretend like it's some earth shatteringly new strategic idea, or the be all end all.
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Chris said this in the comments:
I don't think it's vertically integrated in the classic sense. This isn't oil company buying supplier. It's a tech company building the complete experience including non tech parts. The end result looks more like a company that we wouldn't call vertically integrated. E.g. Uber competes with taxi companies but I don't think we'd call taxi companies vertically integrated.
It may be closer to what is sometimes called the "Whole Product"[1]. In either case, what he's talking about isn't really anything new. And it's not necessarily good for anybody involved either. There are a lot of people, for example, who don't want "Apple style end to end integration" if it means being tied to Apple for everything.
A customer who truly wants "best in class" up and down the stack still wants suppliers to adhere to something somewhat akin to the "Unix philosophy" or the idea of "small pieces, loosely joined".
This "whole product", "full stack", "vertical integration" stuff has a role to play for sure, but let's not pretend like it's some earth shatteringly new strategic idea, or the be all end all.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_product