According to a recently published report, Samsung is getting ready to pump up manufacturing for Apple’s next chip – the Apple A6 – in its plant in Austin, TX.
The news comes from 9to5Mac – a blog dedicated to covering all things Apple – in a post in which they discuss a report by Korea Times which cites “industry sources” who claim that Apple’s A6 chip is being manufactured by Samsung.
Korea Times’ report goes against what was claimed by Taiwan Economics News and Commercial Times which suggested that Apple would be going for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) instead of Samsung for manufacturing next-generation Apple A6 chips.
From Korea Times:
Industry sources say that Apple will continue to use Samsung’s chips and technology for its next smartphone, which may or may not be named the iPhone 5.
“Apple has been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core mobile processor (AP) chips to be used in the next iPhone. It appears that Apple clearly has concluded that Samsung remains a critical business partner,’’ an executive from an Apple parts supplier based in Korea said on condition of anonymity.
No one outside of Apple and chip manufacturer really knows what the specifications of the Apple A6 are but considering how chip manufacturers like Nvidia will be introducing quad-core chips in Android smartphones early next year, we expect that the A6 will also be a quad-core chip which will offer significant performance gains over the current dual-core A5 chip which powers the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
In a post we published earlier today, we talked a little about how Samsung and Apple were seeking, in different countries, to get each other’s most popular products banned for patent infringements. Both companies are now in what is being called the “patent war” which is going to get worse before it gets any better. Yet, despite all the hostility in court, Samsung and Apple depend on each other in way or the other, so we expect the lawsuits to end in a cross-licensing deal.
Samsung’s Chief Operating Officer and President Lee Jae-yong believes that Apple is one his company’s most important clients. These lawsuits are, then, hurting the “solid partnership” that the two companies have:
Apple is one of Samsung’s most important clients, and we have developed a solid partnership. But that’s a separate matter from the legal disputes between the two companies in areas where they compete.
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