“This week Apple won a temporary injunction in Germany, barring Samsung from selling Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in every EU nation except the Netherlands,” Woody Leonhard reports for InfoWorld. “In the Netherlands, the fight’s expected to extend to Galaxy phones as well.”
“Samsung’s one of Apple’s largest suppliers, with $5.6 billion of Samsung’s 2010 revenues coming from Apple. The Economist published a breakdown of the components of an iPhone 4, showing that Samsung provides flash memory, DRAM, and the processor for the phone,” Leonhard reports. “Altogether, Samsung supplies an estimated 26 percent of the pieces in an iPhone 4. Gizmodo goes on to ask a tantalizing question: What if Samsung stopped supplying parts for the iPhone 4?”
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Leonhard writes, “My take: I bet they already have, or they will in very short order, and Apple couldn’t care less…I think Apple doesn’t need Samsung any more — as of a week or two ago — and they’re striking while the litigious iron is hot. If I’m right, that bodes well for an early release of the iPhone 5, and maybe even the iPad 3. ”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
How Apple blocked Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from sale in Europe – August 9, 2011
Apple wins court order blocking Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from sale in Europe – August 9, 2011
Apple lawsuit puts Samsung tablet sales in Australia on hold – August 1, 2011
So much for another article the other day which stated something to the effect that Samsung had taken on more orders for iPad screens as LG yields weren’t good enough.
I don’t follow the reasoning of the article. What has Apple’s legal spats with Samsung and the threat of severance of a supply relationship with Samsung anything to do with accelerating the release timetable of the iPhone? And by the way I don’t read any signs in the ongoing legal battles that Apple is preparing to release an iPad 3 in October. These are nothing but scurrilous rumors.
I suppose the author is saying that if Apple were concerned about iPhone 5 & iPad 3 production being hampered by component supplies, they wouldn’t be pursuing Samsung so hard. I think there are (at least) several faults with his reasoning. 1-component supply is the long pole in the tent, 2-Samsung is a linchpin supplier, 3-apple hasn’t lined up second sources, 3-iPhone 5 components haven’t long been secured, 4-iPad 3 release is imminent.
If Samsung is being restrained by court orders from bringing handsets and tablets to market, obviously releasing iPhone 5 and iPad 3 would give Apple a temporary (at least) market without (strong) competition. A dream setup, no?
There are many more suppliers of components than there are designers of hot products like the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Apple has a strong negotiating position with Samsung or anyone.
Imagine Apple stops Samsung from selling Galaxy phones and tablets…. bam billions lost.
Two they go to a new supplier… bam billions lost.
This like the change you see in a person’s behavior when they finally decide they aren’t going to take it anymore.
…” Gizmodo goes on to ask a tantalizing question: What if Samsung stopped supplying parts for the iPhone 4?”
is this really a tantalizing question? this has been discussed over and over, from the first challenge to Samsung from Apple.
or maybe it’s a tech blogger trying to wax poetic?
If Samsung were to decide to stop supplying parts to Apple, what message would they be sending to any other manufacturer who was interested in buying parts from them ? Parts suppliers need to be reliable. If they were to cut off supply to their largest customer on a whim, that would be commercial suicide.
There is no way that Samsung would do that. Even by the standards of madness that we have recently witnessed from Samsung, this would be beyond insane.
This is a nonsense story and has no basis in fact.
Samsung is a big company with a lot of divisions. If the parts division is making money then the phone division’s problems are theors to solve.
Samsung isn’t hurting. They have a contract to build two of the largest ships the world has yet to see. These are huge beyond belief!
Only two ship yards in the world can pull that off and neither of them are in the USA.
We have shipyards capable of building the largest ships in the world. That Shipyard, NewportNews, currently builds Aircraft Carriers. To build slightly larger cruise ships, would not cause any stretch of workload for them.
“If the parts division is making money then the phone division’s problems are theors to solve.”
Perhaps — all things being equal.
But if the phone division, who is making low margins and moderate profits at best, takes a course of action that upsets the biggest customer of the parts division and begins jeopardizing $Billions of revenues, you can bet this will become an issue with upper management.
What a stupid article. It’s not like Apple just calls up it’s suppliers one day and says, “We need 20 million screens. Give me your best price.”
They’re called contracts, and if Samsung decided to breach it’s contract with Apple (likely a multi-year deal), than Apple would have a slam dunk case for monetary damages, lost profits, and punitive damages. Plus, not inky would Samsung be throwng away $5 billion in revenue, but it’s other customers would start looking elsewhere for their parts for fear that Samsung would do the same to them.
What a stupid, poorly thought out article. I guess someone had a deadline and no idea what to write about.
It seems to me, the author was handed a headline, and he expanded on it as best as he can at the lack of any evidence or facts to support his arguments.
At least it generated enough hits and now even MDN had posted it here all because of the catchy headline, regardless of its fluff status.
I really don’t think Samsung would cut off who I presume is their biggest customer.
The important relevant piece of information that is missing here is, what percentage does revenue from Apple (for components) represent in Samsung total revenue.
Well, according to wikipedia, the Samsung Group generates some $206B per year. Apple contract represents some $6B. There are some ten divisions in the Samsung Group, where Samsung Electronics is the largest and generates more than half of those $206B per year. So, losing Apple contract isn’t exactly going to send them to bankruptcy.
Indeed.
However, if enough people can see through the conniving mindset of Samsung and shun most/all their products in every category, it might make a dent somewhere.
Boycott everything Samsung, until they may realise that ripping off other people’s hard work/IP isn’t an condonable action. Vote with your wallets.
lets be realistic here. Apple still needs Samsung, and they need them a LOT.
Apparently MDN hasn’t paid attention to the news that LG has been having serious QC problems with its iPad displays, and so Apple is getting only held they need from them. Guess who is making up the slack.
Apple and Samsung will be intwined for years to come, and do t believe anyone who says differently. The truth is that Samsung is the worlds number one or number two supplier for a number of parts Apple needs, and so they can’t avoid that.
Possibly, sometime in the future, that will change. But possibly, Apple is happy with them in that area. As Apple themselves have said, this is a different part of the company, and one has little to do with the other.
They need to be careful. If Samsung QC ever decided to overlook a batch of flaky chips, Apple’s quality reputation could be sullied overnight. Any lawsuits following would be too late.
This is what worries me. I wouldn’t trust any company to be ethical in a situation such as this.
How can Apple constantly check the quality not compromised… Not sure how they operate inside
Gizmodo speculation is bogus. “What if Samsung stopped supplying parts for the iPhone 4?””
What if Apple has a *contract* with Samsung to supply components, and Samsung has to deliver or face an enormous breach of contract lawsuit that might kill the company? Sure, the contract will expire at some point. But Apple has proven to be savvy at sourcing components (Tim Cook), so it won’t be a crisis for Apple if Samsung chooses to pass up on $B in future orders on cutting edge electronics.
What if Gizmodo actually found some integrity and responsibility?