In a bit of Silicon Alley schizophrenia, Apple is both suing Samsung in court and relying upon the South Korean chipmaker for the core of its upcoming iPhone 5 handset. Despite well-publicized flirtations with other chipmakers, the tech giant is tied to its rival — for now.
“They don’t have a choice,” an unnamed source tell CNET. “They can’t switch [from Samsung] at this stage.” The source also refused Monday’s report that Apple would move to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as its chip supplier.
“TSMC has not perfected the advanced manufacturing processes needed to make an A5 for the iPhone and, maybe more importantly, it’s prohibitively difficult to jump to a different manufacturer for the same chip design,” the news site writes.
So, as the battle between Apple and Samsung continues in the courtroom, the two rivals are forced to work together. Certainly an awkward arrangement but one that likely will benefit consumers.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
30 responses to “Report: Apple Has ‘No Choice’ But Samsung for iPhone 5”
And Samsung will not deny their contracts. They’re worth far too much to them.
What do you mean that they have to rely on each other? Samsung doesn’t need Apple for shit.
This makes no sense given that TSMC is not expected by *anyone* to be “mak(ing) an A5 for the iPhone,” but *is* expected to be making the A6 … for which it signed contracts just this week. The A5’s are already made.
No, but Apple does need a prime semiconductor chip manufacturer such as Samsung who developed the A9 cortex processor (rebranded A4) and the A5 processor to come up.
TSMC as mentioned isn’t ready to develop the A5 processor just yet. If Apple goes back, they have to pay Samsung to build the chips.
Apple doesn’t have a choice for an alternative chip maker for the iPhone 5. TSCM is gearing up an all new process design/facility specifically tailoring to the next generation chips, both A6 and A7. Basically what the author is trying to convey is it would be far too costly and ultimately result in many furious consumers if Apple were to totally shun Samsung, with phone delays inevitable. As one reader posted, Samsung is very close to losing Apple as a huge customer, and they will lose them by the beginning of next year. Expect to see an all out war between the two consumer electronics giants, and again seeing Apple come out of it unscathed.
Any side by side comparison on a Samsung phone and an iPhone shows the obvious theft of Apple’s UI. However, both companies need to stop squabbling and move on. This is not helping the consumers, and it damages the smart phone industry.
I disagree, Apple was able to get away with 1 major iPhone update every 2 years in the beginning, because it had the first mover advantage, all the other companies were playing catch up, sort of like now with the iPad. Now that these companies have flooded the market with smartphones, Apple no longer recognizes a void in the market, now it is pure competition. One totally revamped phone after another, (iPhone 4, iPhone5). Apple, more or less Steve Jobs for the matter, is very aggressive when it comes to protecting intellectual property. Now, to get to where you are stating this isn’t helping the consumers….consumer electronics companies are much more innovative and fast-paced now than they were, even compared to last year. The consumers are being presented with the best these companies have to offer at an attractive price point at a certain period of time. The smart phone industry is ruthless, and we’ve only been in it since 2007, but it is also a breeding ground for fast-paced innovation, patent wars, and market share battles, thus resulting in better products and happier consumers. Why would we care what these companies are suing each other over? We get our product, we’re happy.
And one last point to validate my argument. Apple is notorious for updating their products more than once a year, (such as the Macs, MacBooks, even iPhone earlier on in its lifecycle. ) Apple is obviously in no rush to update the iPad before the holiday season, because there is no need to. There are no reputable competitors in the tablet market yet, and probably won’t be until Windows 8. And once that comes middle of next year, I guarantee you’ll see an iPad update before the 2012 holiday season.
Robert, nice try but Samsung needs Apple to copy, otherwise it would still be making flip phones. The fact that Samsung has been producing Apple parts for some time lends even more credence to the fact that it has blatantly copied the iPhone and iPad.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
TSMC will never build the A5 processor
Of course Samsung needs Apple. They probably profit tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars from the sale of components to Apple.
In the corporate world, its all about money. Rival companies would not be so petty as to throw away hundreds of millions of profit out of spite.
how about checking the meaning of shizophrenia split personality is not the main symptom of it but it the main symptom of people trying to use language that they do not know the meaning of
The revenue they gain from apple are a very small part of their income, people droit believe this, but Samsung is one of the biggest technology giants in the world.
If they warned they could cost apple billions in revenue .
Yep. Total apple contract is only worth 9 billion and being components I would be surprised if they make anything beyond 2 billion profit from said contract.
In return they supply Apple with state of the art (unmatched from any other manufacturer) components that power each. and. every. product that Apple sells from its desktops to its phones.
Samsung is top dog in pretty much every component sector it sells.
Apple needs Samsung. Apple is expendable to Samsung.
Especially now Samsungs phones are clearly dominating Apples.
*Hense the lawsuites in the first place*
It’s like having sex with a hooker, after you shag her you then turn her in for soliciting….isn’t this corporate America at its best?