“Samsung Electronics Co is looking to supply chips to more Chinese and other emerging smartphone makers, the head of its system chip business said, to counter any fall-off in demand from Apple Inc, which is weaning itself off Samsung chips used in its iPhones and iPads,” Miyoung Kim reports for Reuters.
“As Apple looks to be less reliant on its rival for parts for its gadgets – it is already buying fewer Samsung memory chips and display screens as the two have gone to war over patents – concerns have grown that Samsung may see its processor revenues tumble,” Kim reports. “Supplying processors for Apple products has been the mainstay of Samsung’s system chips business.”
Kim reports, “Goldman Sachs estimates Samsung’s AP chip sales to Apple will rise to 9.3 trillion won ($8.8 billion) this year, or nearly 80 percent of Apple’s spending on Samsung processing chips, memory chips and flat screens. But that could tumble to just 2.5 trillion won next year, as Apple will shift 30 percent of its AP business from Samsung and eventually 80 percent by 2017, according to Goldman.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By SteveJack
80% by 2017? Sheesh. Who can move more glacially, the legal systems of the world or Apple Inc.?
Apple should’ve seen this coming and prepared a lot sooner than they did. Samsung’s been blatantly ripping them off since early 2008, at least. Yes, chip and display fabs are expensive, but Apple has had billions upon billions at their disposal for many, many years now. If friggin’ Shamelessdung can figure it out, certainly Apple could have assembled the talent and the resources in order to gain leverage, protect themselves, and properly diversify their suppliers long ago.
As I’ve always maintained, Tim Cook boxed Apple in here royally. It’s his biggest mistake, making Apple so damn beholden to Samsung. No, he couldn’t have anticipated the level of IP theft Samsung was willing to commit, but once April 2008 rolled around, Cook should have begun working to get Apple free from Samsung – certainly faster than still being stuck sourcing 20% of their mobile chips from them in 2017. 2017!
I can’t help but think that, instead of doing what they’re finally doing now, Apple sat around for 2 or 3 years saying to themselves, “We can’t believe they’re doing this. Maybe we can talk to them and get them to stop.”
Total waste of time.
Current worldwide smartphone market share should be 75% for Apple’s iOS, instead it’s 14.9%. Android has 75%. Even though, if you’ll remember, ’twas Apple who reinvented the phone, not Google.
Apple blew this big time: First by trusting Eric T. Mole on the BoD, then leaving him there for far too long, then giving Android oxygen by clinging to AT&T exclusively – again for too long, then by allowing Samsung to run roughshod over Apple’s intellectual property because Apple had no leverage (I can almost hear Samsung saying, “Well, what are you going to do about it? Where are you going to go? Do you want your chips and screens or what? Because without us you’ll have neither!”) Yet again, Apple waited too long to make the move. Every move Apple has made in this whole Android/Samsung knock off debacle has been late and taken too long.
Yes, I know, market share isn’t everything and Apple dominates in the more important profit share metric, but giving away what’s rightfully yours or sitting around with your thumb up your ass while it’s taken from you in broad daylight simply isn’t a smart move, no matter how you slice it.
Ah, well, better late than never, I guess. Maybe Apple can expedite the process and make up for at least some of the precious lost time.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section who pretty much predicted the iPhone 4 years before Steve Jobs pulled it out of the pocket of his blue jeans.