Samsung Wins Order to Produce A9 Chips for the Next iPhone?
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Posted April 3, 2015 at 6:35am by iClarified
Samsung has been selected as the producer of the A9 chip that Apple will use in its next generation iPhone, reports Bloomberg.
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. 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.
Apple chose TSMC as the producer of its A8 processor for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The missed business contributed to Samsung semiconductor posting a 1 trillion ($914 million) loss last year. However, if Samsung does end up producing the A9 chip it could realize a 1 trillion won gain this year, says Song Myung Sup, a Seoul-based analyst at HI Investment & Securities Co.
This report corroborates one from February which said Apple was going with Samsung because its managed to shrink the size of the transistors on its chips to 14nm while TSMC is still at 20nm.
They win if they have the smaller no which means smaller chips with more power, that's why Apple chose TSMC one time, no defects in either anyway when Apple puts the entire chip together.
Apple will never designate any makers of certain components in their product the "default" or "exclusive" provider. That way they can always let these providers compete with each other on price and quality while Apple making them jump through hoops to please Cupertino. Every component for every single round of purchase has to be "won". And just in case a manufacturer fail to deliver because of technical or production or quality issues, Apple lock them in with a contract that fine them so much that it is cheaper for them to go "buy" these components from their competitors that "lost" the contract in order to fill apple's order. Another reason Apple string these competing manufacturers along for so long before they make the final decision is so that they can ensure those manufacturers that "lose" will continue to do RnD for these Apple components so that they can jump in anytime when something went wrong. Samsung is just the most recognized component provider of Apple. Simply because they have their own brand of mobile phone line. But they actually earn a very minimal profit margin from doing it. A very raw deal if u ask me. But I guess what they r after is simply the prestige associated as this make any laymen to the industry think more highly of them and their products.
Also. Since Apple is the only one who know which manufacturer that will end up "winning" the contract. They get to sell short or purchase the stocks of these company before they announce the winner. And every one of these rumors are made by key players in the stock market to manipulate stock price of Samsung and TSMC in order to make insidious profits. I am not trying to making accusation or hinting any insider trading activity or point fingers at anyone. I am simply trying to point out at components manufacturers like TSMC and even Samsung are pretty much under the mercy of Apple.