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.