Apple's Supply Chain Diversification Hitting Samsung's Chip Business Hard
Apple has been expanding its supply chain, bringing in companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to produce components for its iPhone and iPad devices. This supply chain diversification may benefit Apple, but it is having a negative effect on rival Samsung's chip manufacturing business, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Since 2007, Samsung has enjoyed the coveted position of being the only manufacturer of Apple's Ax series of processors and their predecessors. But after several years of negotiations and technical work as the popularity of Apple's iOS devices has soared, Apple has brought TSMC on board to produce A-series chips for the next generation of devices. This transition away from Samsung as the sole supplier of the main chip for iOS devices is cutting into the Korean company's logic chip business.
“Sales and profitability from System LSI (logic chip business) worsened as demand from main customers continued to decline,” Robert Yi, Samsung’s head of investor relations said last week.
Samsung's logic chip division struggled in the just-ended quarter, and the outlook for the business is equally bleak with Samsung acknowledging the continued low demand from customers will remain an issue going forward.
The sharp turnaround has led to analysts such as IBK Securities' Lee Seung-woo predicting losses of approximately 877 billion won ($848.5 million) for the division in 2014, compared to operating profits of 203 billion won ($196.3 million) in 2013 and 1 trillion won ($967.8 million) in 2012.
Popular Stories
Apple's AirPods have been credited with saving a woman's life after a potentially fatal fall, People reports.
When a 60-year-old florist in New Jersey tripped and hit her head in her studio, she lost consciousness and awoke heavily bleeding. With nobody around to call for help, she realized she had her AirPods in, and used a "Hey Siri" command to call 911. An operator was able to stay on the ...
Apple is working on a number of new products that are set to launch this fall, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that it will be "the widest array" of new devices that Apple has introduced in its history.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explains that Apple is working on four new flagship iPhones (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max), an updated low-end Ma...
Apple has always emphasized the depth of thought that goes into the design of its products. In the foreword to Designed by Apple in California, a photo book released by the company in 2016, Jony Ive explains how Apple strives "to define objects that appear effortless" and "so simple, coherent and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative."
But every once in a while even Apple...
As we roll into the latter half of January, we're starting to hear more about a potential spring Apple event, which is likely to take place in March or April. There are a number of potential announcements on deck, so an event would be a good opportunity for Apple to get them all out there.
We've also been going back and forth on some iPhone 14 rumors, and we've taken a look at a number of...
AT&T today announced the launch of upgraded AT&T Fiber plans, which support speeds of up to 5 Gigabits for some customers. There are two separate plans, one "2 GIG" plan and one "5 GIG" plan, available to new and existing AT&T Fiber subscribers.
According to AT&T, the new plans are available to nearly 5.2 million customers across 70 metro areas including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, San...
Three months after their launch, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros continue to experience high demand and seemingly short supply, with shipping dates for both models stretching into multiple weeks in several of Apple's key markets.
In the United States, the baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip is estimated to ship in three to four weeks, promising an arrival by at least...
Following months of bleak news about Peloton's "precarious state," including the revelation that it has halted production of its bikes and treadmills, Apple is being floated as a potential buyer of Peloton's troubled fitness business.
Yesterday, CNBC reported that Peloton will temporarily stop production of its connected fitness products due to a "significant reduction" in consumer demand, a ...
Earlier this week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman tweeted that Apple "will be holding a spring event" to announce a new iPhone SE and other hardware. In a recent edition of his newsletter, Gurman said the event is likely to occur in March or April.
Gurman did not elaborate on what "other hardware" will be announced at Apple's purported spring event, but rumors suggest at least four products are...
Top Rated Comments
To be clear, I don't wish Samsung to go out of business. They do a good job making certain hardware components like displays and SSDs. I just want them to be put in their place for all of their shameless copying. Punishment to fit the crime. Now continue along like a good little OEM.
They bit the hand that fed them. Actually, they gnarled on it until it was a bloody stump. So, in the immortal words of Nelson, "Ha-Ha!"
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo
I'm loving it. It's not just for Apple's sake either. They've shamelessly copied pretty much everybody in the industry -- Kodak, Dyson, Sony, the lot -- then slow down the legal proceedings with constant counter-suing and mistrials until they've made enough profit from the copied tech that they don't need to worry any more.
I hope their lousy business/innovation morals come back to bite them hard.
... :D
And this is where I have a big problem.
Samsung Mobile is an absolute pile of crap, and deserve to go down, but other divisions are very useful and do great things, from an engineering POV.
Look at what Samsung did with AMOLED. Look at how fundamental they were in releasing high PPI displays for everybody, great SSDs, etc.
Heck, even the Mobile division is responsible for putting big screens on mainstream phones.
Then again, they still make a lot of money per quarter. Yet :) Who here wants to bet that next year, the giant and all mighty Samsung Eletronics, will post "just" 2 billion $ of net profit, instead of the 6 or 7 they posted?
----------
No. Samsung killed everything that Sony had, HTC, other companies. And it was never because they made better products.
Just cheap me too copies. It helps when you own the country.