Fierce rivals work hand-in-hand.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Apple and Samsung may be fierce rivals who butt heads on a fairly regular basis — sometimes exchanging litigation for billions of dollars — but that apparently won’t be stopping them from working together over mobile processing chips for smartphones.
Samsung will allegedly create the electronic engines powering the next-generation of iPhones, according to Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper.
The report states the Korean electronics and technology giant will snag a tidy 75 percent of processor chip production for Apple’s next smartphone.
While it’s highly unlikely Apple and Samsung will cozy up and let bygones be bygones on multiple fronts, Samsung is one of the only companies with the resources to provide high-end processors on the scale Apple requires for international iPhone production.
As they say: business is business.
While it may seem counterintuitive for Samsung to aid in the production of a flagship smartphone for one of its direct competitors in the mobile market, the financial perks are too tempting to ignore.
With every iPhone Apple order, Samsung gets paid for producing the processor, meaning that in addition to enjoying the revenue stream provided by its own line of Galaxy phones, Samsung could effectively profit from its primary competitor’s success as well.
Apple and Samsung have been traditional archenemies in the smartphone market for the past several years. The companies are the two most popular smartphone makers in the world, and according to Cnet, combined to control over 75 percent of the U.S. market in the fourth quarter.
The report discloses Samsung will produce the chips, believed to be called the A9, at its factory in Austin, Texas.