“Samsung Electronics Co. will manufacture the main chip in Apple Inc.’s next iPhone model, regaining a customer previously lost to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., people with direct knowledge of the matter said,” Jungah Lee and Ian King report for Bloomberg. “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.”
“Winning this order from Apple will help the world’s second-largest chipmaker rebound against TSMC, which last year ended Samsung’s monopoly over contracts to make iPhone and iPad chips. Both manufacturers have boosted capital expenditures to gain business from Apple and Qualcomm Inc. in the more than $300 billion semiconductor industry,” Lee and King report. “Apple’s decision to turn back to the rival for supply of crucial components may vindicate Samsung’s investments in trying to grab the lead in manufacturing technology. Apple spent $25.8 billion on chips last year, accounting for 7.6 percent of industry purchases, researcher Gartner Inc. said.”
Lee and King report, “Whether Samsung can hold onto the contract exclusively may depend on how quickly TSMC can bring online more advanced production and the pricing that both companies are willing to offer Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of who stamps it, serial patent infringers or not, the Apple A9 SoC is going to be a beast!
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