[_the_inflator]

I agree. People confuse relative for absolute numbers.

And ironically Apple acts like being a small contender the moment they feel some heat after a decade of relatively easy wins everywhere it seemed.

So finally there is a company that gives Apple some much needed heat.

That’s why I in absolute terms side with NVIDIA, the small contender in this case.

PS: I had one key moment in my career when I was at Google and a speaker mentioned the unit “NBU”. It stands for next billion units.

This is ten years ago and started my mental journey into large scale manufacturing and production including all the processes included.

The fascination never left. It was a mind bender for me and totally get why people miss everything that large.

At Google it was just a milestone expected to be hit - not one time but as the word next indicates multiple times.

Mind blowing and eye opening to me ever since. Fantastic inspiration thinking about software, development and marketing.

[KeplerBoy]

Did google ever ship a billion units of any hardware? Can't think of anything substantial.

Apple hit 3 billion iphones in mid 2025.

[zvorygin]

How did you get into large scale manufacturing and production? Was it a career switch? Downsides? It too fascinates me. Any book recommendations?

[shuckles]

It’s also strange because I highly doubt Google has manufactured a billion physical units of anything. Most of their consumer hardware is designed and built by partners, including Pixel.

[kshacker]

I think the parent comment said "mental journey", not a real one, although it will be good to get more insights.

[BOOSTERHIDROGEN]

Waiting OP response too, fascinating.