We have just gone through a world wide economic downturn. No one was buying NAND Flash chips all of last year. The price was headed toward the floor and manufacturers were headed out of business. If they had gone out of business then the supply would be worse than now.

What kept those companies alive was that Apple stepped in with a huge wad of cash to buy chips on a deferred basis. Anyone could have done that same thing as Apple and reaped the benefits of a locked in price. But, no one did.

Now that better times seem to be on the horizon, the other companies are kicking themselves for not taking advantage of the bad times.

No, Wait, they aren’t blaming themselves for lacking guts. They are blaming Apple for doing what they should have done. If you snooze, you lose, boys.