Why Apple and Samsung Still Get Along, Behind the Courtroom Battles

After suing each other for the last few years in various courts around the world, you'd think that if Apple and Samsung were human beings they would have walked away from their rocky relationship a while back. The Wall Street Journal explains (beside the larger fact that they're both huge companies with complex links, rather than a squabbling couple) why it's so hard for Apple to take up with another supplier. Things are starting to look different, though: "Apple's deal this month to start buying chips from TSMC is a milestone. Apple long wanted to build its own processors, and it bought a chip company in 2008 to begin designing the chips itself. But it continued to rely on Samsung to make them. ... TSMC plans to start mass-producing the chips early next year using advanced '20-nanometer' technology, which makes the chips potentially smaller and more energy-efficient."

Comments

It's because Steve is gone

[kthreadd]

Now they are just riding it out, both laughing all the way to the bank.

Re:It's because Steve is gone

[arbiter1]

Um, not really, Apple needs Samsung, Samsung doesn't need apple. Samsung is one few companies that can keep the demand apple has for chips in its phones. Going from company size, Samsung is much larger and worth a lot more considering they make so many products where as Apple 95-98% of their profits are from 2 product's

Re:It's because Steve is gone

[Guy Harris]

Alliance: two thieves who have their hands so deeply insert into each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

That sounds like something out of Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary.

That's because it is.

Re:It's because Steve is gone

[Savage-Rabbit]

Um, not really, Apple needs Samsung, Samsung doesn't need apple. Samsung is one few companies that can keep the demand apple has for chips in its phones. Going from company size, Samsung is much larger and worth a lot more considering they make so many products where as Apple 95-98% of their profits are from 2 product's

Samsung's electronics division is a mini corporation within the Samsung empire that cares more about what Apple is doing than what most of the rest of the Samsung empire is doing. At the moment Samsung is making a bundle off of every iPhone, iPad and iPod sold by Apple on top of what they are making from their own like of tablets and smartphones and that has to count as a pretty nice win-win situation. I can't imagine that the bean counters at Samsung are happy at the prospect of a major smartphone and tablet computer manufacturer who commands 20% of the smartphone market and 40% of the tablet computer market (and the lucrative high end segments of those markets at that), will in future be spending money that previously flowed into Samsung 's coffers with Samsung's competitors.

Re:It's because Steve is gone

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Samsung's stock took a 6% hit, or $10B in market cap lost, when it was RUMORED they were losing Apple chip contract last year:

Are you seriously trying to imply that the stock market in the short term is an objective measure of, well, anything other than the emotions of the participants?

Re:It's because Steve is gone

[maccodemonkey]

Um, not really, Apple needs Samsung, Samsung doesn't need apple. Samsung is one few companies that can keep the demand apple has for chips in its phones. Going from company size, Samsung is much larger and worth a lot more considering they make so many products where as Apple 95-98% of their profits are from 2 product's

TSMC plans to start mass-producing the chips early next year using advanced '20-nanometer' technology, which makes the chips potentially smaller and more energy-efficient.

Seems Apple doesn't need Samsung.

How to make money and lose business outsourcing

[Cassini2]

A simple sure-fire plan:
1. Outsource all of your core competencies - parts, production, everything. Keep nothing in house.
2. Profit!!!
Quietly, suppliers start selling direct to customers to make more money.
3. Find cheaper suppliers - more Profits!!!
Discover your original suppliers now sell a better product.
4. Liquidation sale! More Profits!!!

Last Step:
1. Write a business school textbook, preaching the virtues of the first 3 steps.

I remember 2007

[tuppe666]

Midrange and out of date. Last I checked it still blew anything else out there out of the water in pretty much any benchmark. How's the iPhone mid-range in anything other than fanboy nonsense?

2007 was a great year, the film 300 game out, The last episode of the price is right, and Anna Nicole Smith's untimely death.

I can't think of a flagship phone from competing company that is not newer, higher DPI, More RAM, Faster processor, With features like waterproof and IR running a later OS.

Apple fell behind a long time ago, This is just getting more and more marked as time goes on.

TSMC doesn't sell "To" Apple

[Nova Express]

TSMC is a foundry; Apple contracts with TSMC to manufacturer their chips for them.

It takes years to change logistics

[alen]

Apple can't just order 100 million cpu's from someone. You need the infrastructure and supply chain to be able to meet the orders. And you don't dare drop existing customers

It's taking apple five years to diversify its suppliers which is about average for a company their size

Apple's capital expenses have been huge lately which most likely means they are buying the machinery for their suppliers to make their stuff for them

Re:Technology Reporting

[TechyImmigrant]

>"Potentially" makes them smaller and more power efficient. Or rather "does" but the reporter isn't knowledgeable enough to know one way or another.

No. The reporter is spot on. While in the past doing a simple shrink without redesign or significant relayout would always give power and area savings, the same is no longer true, since energy density and leakage may go up faster than dynamic power goes down. So you may need to re-layout to dilute the heat concentrations and you may find yourself consuming more power.

These days, adding advanced power features to chips is a necessary step to yield the full power and area benefits of denser transistors. Witness the power and area improvements in Haswell over Ivy Bridge, while the process (22nm) stayed fairly constant.

Re: Why would they?

[alen]

No, the galaxy s3 is slower than my iPhone 5. I have both phones and use them daily. The s3 is laggy compared to my iPhone.

Re:Except that you asume everybody is dumb like yo

[AmiMoJo]

Samsung and LG own all the patents on the LCDs used in the retina screens. Keep in mind they are pretty low end screens, not even 720p HD, where as those guys are both using 1080p as standard on their own high end models.

Apple doesn't really invent much tech. They are mostly a design company. They take technology from other companies and integrate it, then patent the overall design. That's why they are having problems with FRAND patents - they don't have any to license in return so have to pay cash.