WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Korea Times in Monday reported, 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.
He said that Samsung has been increasing the output of the Apple-designed A6 chips in its manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.
Samsung Electronics will apply its advanced 28-nanometer processing technology to produce qualified A6 mobile APs. TSMC will provide customized chips with designs from Apple, however, the volume will be very small,’’ said the executive.
Samsung Electronics Chief Executive Choi Gee told reporters, its chief operating officer (COO) Lee Jae-yong, son of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee and heir apparent to the group’s leadership, flew to the United States, following an invitation from new Apple CEO Tim Cook, to participate in a private memorial service for the late Steve Jobs, Sunday.
Lee will have a separate meeting with Cook over several pending issues, which backs assumptions that Apple still views Samsung as a critical parts supplier.
Samsung said its capability to manufacture customized chips on a foundry or contract basis gives it an advantage that TSMC and other rivals cannot currently match.
``The manufacturing process at TSMC hasn’t been stabilized. Considering Apple’s previous patterns of adopting qualified technologies, Apple isn’t taking risks. Samsung offers better pricing and capacity commitment for the A6 mobile APs,’’ said an official from a different Apple supplier.
Apple will become Samsung’s biggest overseas client by the end of this year, according to industry analysts, after buying over $8 billion worth of components including liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and memory chips.
LG's 'Retina Display' still in play
Industry sources believe that the next version of the iPhone will feature a 4-inch LCD screen, 0.5 inch larger than the recently-unveiled iPhone 4GS, and they will continue to be provided by LG Display.
``The iPhone 5 will feature a similar resolution to the iPhone 4, which is 960x640 pixels. It’s very unlikely that Apple will go for organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays considering the problems related to brightness and battery consumption,’’ said another industry executive.
LG Display has been the provider of “Retina Display’’ screens that have been used in Apple’s mobile products. The screen provides a high-level of picture density that makes it hard to see the pixels.
Source: KoreaTimes via CRN
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