Apple and Samsung have long been rivals in the smartphone scene. However, that does not mean they stay out of each other's business. Just recently, Bloomberg reported that the titanic Cupertino-based company is enlisting the tech firm from South Korea to manufacture its A9 chips for the alleged iPhone 6s.
Although Apple has had help from Samsung in the past, the long-running collaboration reportedly ended due to some infringement issues. Apple CEO Tim Cook and his team then worked with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for the chips used on its recent iPhone releases.
There is still no word from Samsung or Apple about the latest reports claiming their renewed partnership. But if the speculations are accurate, Samsung, which has been struggling as far as the international semiconductor market is concerned, will be getting a much-needed boost.
"While Samsung Electronics kept its position as the No. 1 largest customer of semiconductor chip vendors, its growth rate in 2014 was lower than the global semiconductor market's growth," Gartner research analyst Masatsune Yamaji said in a press released published in January. "Firstly because it struggled in the smartphone market and secondly because it is withdrawing from some parts of the PC market."
Furthermore, it will be the chance for Samsung to reclaim its place in the world of mass-producing chips. This battle against TSMC has long been there, and if Apple goes back to Samsung for the production of its A9 chips, which was predicted by analysts, then Samsung is bound to reclaim its place.
"The bigger story is that Samsung is currently dominating TSMC in the next-generation node (16/14nm) market," Linley Group principal analyst Linley Gwennap told Top Tech News. "TSMC has lost the Galaxy S6 processor and the next iPhone processor, and we believe that Qualcomm and Nvidia will also build their next-generation chips at Samsung instead of TSMC."
