Competitors - Apple & Samsung ???
Apple and Samsung have been significant competitors for so many years, fighting to acquire smartphone markets to share and partnership when it comes to chips. As per the present report from the electronic times, TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is going to be the only one organization manufacturing A10 for the next generation of iPhones. Samsung will not be working with Apple for the upcoming iPhones.
This is not overnight changes as Apple had already been working with TSMC for a long time. The A9 chips in the few models of iPhone like 6s and 6s plus are presently prepared by Both TSMC and Samsung. Before that, TSMC was the sole supplier of A8 for the models of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
By Using so many manufacturing partners will give different profits. First, this is the good way to make sure that you don’t have any supply shortage issue. As given that Apple is selling tens of millions of iPhones per 3 months, it is confusing that either Samsung alone or TSMC alone can generate enough chips for all the phones. Both Samsung and TSMC are manufacturing chips for other phones as well.
Second thing, negotiating with so many companies lets you get good prices. It is confusing either Samsung is more expensive or TSMC, but Apple can drive the price cheap as the A10 is going to represent the huge contract.
Finally, Apple can choose the most productive designs. TSMC’s A9 was slightly better when it comes to their battery life. So Apple may be supported TSMC for the same reason as well.
As per The Electronic Times, TSMC is planning to start its A10 production in June ahead of the iPhone 7 release this fall. We will have to wait for iPhone 7 teardown to get to know more about the A10.
From the customer side, it does not change much if your iPhone chip is made by TSMC or Samsung. Both the companies is going to apply Apple’s own CPU designs. But Samsung’s chip business could take a hit from this failure contract.