I divorce thee, Apple finally tells Korean rival
They’ve rowed massively and now it looks as though the marriage is finally over. Apple is kicking Samsung out of bed with reports from Korea that their supply chain partnership is “near collapse.”
For years the two have benefited hugely from the relationship, with Apple getting cheap components and Samsung earning billions from its biggest parts customer.
Last week it was reported that Apple was planning to shift its chip fabrication from Samsung to TSMC for the A7 processor, thought to be a quad-core design built on a 20nm process.
But now, according to the Korea Times, Apple is planning to axe completely its reliance on Samsung technology with flash memory orders from Samsung also said to be in the early firing line.
Meanwhile, although the new dual-core 32nm Apple A6 processor continues to be made by Samsung, Apple completed the design entirely in-house.
In the past year the two rivals have been locked in litigation around the globe, with the pair due to clash again soon in a Californian courtroom where Samsung was fined over $1 billion for violating Apple designs and patents in a landmark hearing. Samsung has retaliated by accusing the US manufacturing of infringing its own patents, particularly in the realm of 4G.
Though Apple’s latest iPhone 5 is proving a global best-seller, its Asian competitor has over taken it as the world’s biggest seller of smartphones.
It’s a bitter feud which looks like permanently damaging the pair’s long-term relationship with one Samsung executive reported as saying that Apple has made it clear it will “no longer use” its arch rival’s technology. Just how long that will take is a moot point given that Samsung’s chips and other parts are said to account for 26 per cent of the component cost of Apple’s iPhone.
