Bloomberg reports that Samsung has signed on to provide A9 chips to Apple for the next-generation iPhone. Apple moved to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 2013 for its processors, looking to reduce its reliance on Samsung, who is a major competitor in the smartphone space and a legal foe. With that said, it was reported last September that Samsung was still supplying 40 percent of the A8 chips found in the iPhone 6 despite Apple’s attempt to part ways.
This new deal between Samsung and Apple was originally rumored back in December in several reports. A separate report from Re/code in February corroborated the earlier rumors. Bloomberg now says that Samsung will produce the Apple A9 chips in its Giheung plant in South Korea. Additional orders will also go to Samsung’s parter Globalfoundries Inc.
Samsung is said to be producing the A9 chips with its advanced 14-nanometer process. One of the primary reasons Apple has decided to return to Samsung is that the company has more advanced manufacturing technologies than TSMC. Samsung is currently in the process of spending $15 billion on a new chip plant outside of South Korea.
Samsung will start making Apple A9 processor chips at its Giheung plant in South Korea, the people said, asking not to be identified because the contract hasn’t been discussed publicly. Additional orders will go to Samsung’s partner Globalfoundries Inc., according to another person familiar with the arrangement.
A report from KGI this morning claimed that Apple’s next iPhone will feature Force Touch, but not in the same way as the Watch and MacBook. Because of this, the report suggested that Apple may call its next phone the iPhone 7, as opposed to the 6s. Although at this point, that seems to be purely speculation.
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About the only thing that Samsung can make right…
https://youtu.be/3Y7tPczbOec
Because aluminium isn’t it…
These aren’t real use situations and doesn’t take into account any weak spots on the phones as the pressure is placed onto the centre… Man if you don’t
Blah blah blah, a guy bending a phone with his hands on YouTube, surely does…
I’ll bend any cell phone on the market with my bare hands and send you the video, guaranteed. You just send it to me first. IMO, anyone who mistreats such an expensive piece of equipment deserves to lose it.
I’m confused… I thought we hate anything samsung!
I don’t hate Samsung at all. I have bought my share of products from them – and I have my own opinions of my purchase decisions. But I don’t hate them. They’re a huge company, like a GE. They make everything, from heavy equipment to electronic components.
Apple can certainly buy from them. When they do, I am sure there are strong supplier contracts in place. Apple will have backup suppliers in place, and Samsung will certainly pay if there is any failure to deliver in time and at the right quality. Look what happened to GT when they failed to deliver the quality on-time.
What I don’t understand is why Samsung isn’t copying Apple’s chips, or why they agree to build Apple’s chips for them in the first place. I mean, Samsung spends billions on state-of-the-art chip manufacturing equipment, then builds their competitor’s stuff with it?!? Samsung doesn’t sound like a very well-run company to me.
Samsung is a massive conglomerate with numerous branches that all address different markets. Think GE in America. Selling smart phones is one of the ways that they create a market for their chip components. As I recall, Apple is one of, if not the, largest customer for their chips. So its a customer Samsung can’t afford to lose. Of course, why would they manufacture a product that directly competes with the iPhone? I guess they think they are the only manufacturer that can produce the A9 in the volumes Apple requires and at the price Apple wants to pay. They clearly bend over backwards to make Apple happy in this regard by opening entirely new foundries dedicated to iPhone chips. That all being said, I’d love to hear what a typical meeting between Apple and Samsung execs is like on any given day.
Reblogged this on Ring of Chigasaki and commented:
あれだけ喧嘩しながら、
右手と左手と言うのか、
左脳と右脳が上手くアップル社で連携していないのか、
これとそれは別物なのか・・・
和解したのか・・・
もうわかりません。
Samsung hates Samsung!
They have completely copied Apple with their “latest” Galaxy series – No removable battery or expandable memory. They really are clueless in the phone division. “Copy Everything – If Apple has it / does it, we must copy”
guess why?
they can’t spend money on development of originality.
Apple should buy TSMC move them to the U.S. open more plants and get them up to par with Samsung
Much easier said than done, I’m afraid. Chip manufacturing is a very complicated process. It requires a whole lot of very specialized equipment as well as highly qualified people. It’s not like assembling toasters or even like building computers.
However, I totally agree with your sentiments.
One word: finally