It looks like Samsung’s semiconductor sector is in trouble. With weak forecasts for the semiconductor this year, Samsung must have been hoping to cling on to Apple’s lifebuoy – the manufacturing of the iPhone 7’s A10 chip. However, a recent report from Kimchi land suggests that Apple has granted Samsung rival TSMC to manufacture its A10 chips for the upcoming iPhone.
A brief history lesson – both Samsung and TSMC have been sharing their load on manufacturing Apple’s iPhone chips. In 2014, TSMC snatched the rights to make the A8 chip for the iPhone 6. Fortunately for Samsung, the company managed to salvage their cut of workload the next year when it gained back the split rights to manufacture the A9 chip for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. This year, history looks to repeat itself with TSMC getting the edge yet again.
According to the report, TSMC managed to gain exclusivity because of its 10nm process compared to Samsung’s 14nm process. While this is fresh news to all of us, Samsung’s semiconductor division apparently knew about this change of contract, hence forecasting a weak 2016. This might be why the company has also been vying with Qualcomm to produce the Snapdragon 820. What do you think about this rivalry? Let us know your thoughts!
Source: ET News
