Four years after it stopped producing NAND-Flash memories for the iPhone, Apple has reportedly reached a deal with the South Korean tech giant to be the company’s solid-state storage supplier for next year’s iPhone refresh.
The reason for the two parties initially going their separate ways was reportedly down to Samsung proving unwilling to adopt electromagnetic interference-shielding (EMI) technology as per Apple’s wishes.
Since the shipping of the iPhone 5, Samsung has reportedly co-developed a new EMI shielding process which uses a spray method to achieve this task. Best of all, Samsung’s use of what is called “ball grid array” (BGA) means that Samsung’s NAND-Flash memory package can sit flush with printed circuit boards — making it possible to make chips smaller and lighter.
“Although Samsung Electronics had no thought of using LGA packaging method just for Apple, it seems that Samsung Electronics found a [suitable] solution this time,” said an industry source in speaking with ETNews.
While the addition of Samsung as a supplier for NAND-Flash may not be significant on its own, it demonstrates once more than Apple is far from ready to ditch its South Korean rival manufacturer. Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple has brokered a deal with the company to provide OLED panels for a future iPhone, also scheduled to ship in 2017.
Samsung is allegedly “on the fast track” to building a dedicated facility for supplying displays to Apple.
Who knows? If Apple continues handing out contracts to Samsung, perhaps there will be more Apple-dedicated facilities in the near future.
