A Wall Street journal article (March 4, 2011) describes an interesting global supply chain issue for electronic component suppliers like Toshiba, Samsung and LG Display (they supply memory chips or screens). These companies supply components used by Apple for their iPad.  But these same suppliers also have their own tablets that compete with the iPad. As the sales of the iPad increase, these suppliers get component margins but loose the larger OEM margins for their own products.  Of course Apple controls the software used in its products, while the suppliers who produce tablets use Google’s Android operating system environment. How will the interests of each of these suppliers and Apple impact the tablets offered, their availability and pricing ?  Will this result in Apple getting lower component prices and the supplier competing at the low end of the tablet market ? How will the learning from Apple’s specifications enable competitive tablet creation by these suppliers ? Should Apple break up its global supply chain to minimize its future competition from current suppliers ?