Samsung to Cease Providing LCD Panels to Apple in 2013

[h1r0ll3r]

So it begins.....wonder how long this corporate trial separation will go. Or if it'll just be a bitter, bitter divorce process between these two. Should be fun reading down the road

[nick_elt]

Originally Posted by iGrip

If this will allow Apple to increase their profit margins, I'm totally in favor of it!

please tell me your joking or a shareholder.

[Shrink]

Divorce is such a painful and ugly thing...

[Laai]

Get your hands on those Samsung retina panels in rMBP while you still can...

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by NachoGrande

it's called cutting your nose off to spite your face

How's that? LCD panels are a commodity. Samsung makes great panels to be sure, but so does LG.

Almost every component Samsung makes that Apple buys has an equal quality replacement. Also most consumers can't tell the difference between Manufacturer A component and Manufacturer B. Even geeks here don't know for sure until they look up product codes.

[SandboxGeneral]

I think the handwriting was on the wall here. With all the lawsuits and the big billion dollar suit, their business relationship was bound to end sooner rather than later. It's too bad too because Samsung does make some nice display's. I really like my Samsung TV.
I hope future Apple products with different display's don't suffer in QC.

[oliversl]

This is something Samsung know for years now, but which is the strategy for them, for covering the loss of working with Apple? More phones? They don't ear that much money. Google help? Maybe, but it must be a secret one since nobody knows about it. Or just plain macho CEO Korean Style?

[CavemanEmpire]

This is very good. Apple's money thrown to Samsung competitors only strengthens competition in the component market. Solid orders allow these firms to plan expansion and invest in R&D.

$7-8 billion dollars in lost orders was damn foolish.

[the8thark]

Originally Posted by Shrink

Divorce is such a painful and ugly thing...

MacRumors does not think so. They love using their Apple/samsung image always.

[JarScott]

Won't this cause big problems for Samsung's profits? It was my understanding that Apple pays Samsung millions of $ to produce parts. I know Samsung will probably stay afloat with TV and smartphone sales but they're surely become a whole load less wealthy because of this?

[madrag]

Bad for everyone

I hope this doesn't affect the iMac, will it? (Apple could just start using other suppliers already in 2012?)

What are comapnies?

Originally Posted by MacRumors

(...) between Apple and Samsung that has seen the two comapnies reducing their component supply (...)

[Beezzy]

Now all the Samesung fanboys can cry how Apple is screwing them. Good, Apple trusted Samsung with being a parts supplier and Apple got screwed over.

[Oletros]

Totally logic

[Itpirate]

Im glad my Air has a samsung display. The LG displays stink!

[lazyrighteye]

I can't see how this is a good thing for Apple.
How many manufactures can delivery at a consistent quality and quantity of a Samsung?
Regardless, some company looks to have an unexpectedly amazing 2013...

[the read]

Originally Posted by iGrip

If this will allow Apple to increase their profit margins, I'm totally in favor of it!

Really!!! How about creating technology that is value for money for the loyal user base. Apple need to spend more of their profit fixing iOS maps or finishing the implementation of OSX with the Retina screen. Apple are now in the habit of releasing poor quality products to the market with an expensive price tag. What happend to quality control. LG will not help them better the products.

I don't understand people who follow blindly a company that in recent years has shown little regard for their users.

[314631]

Originally Posted by MetalRCG

I was gonna say, aren't Samsung displays superior to LG's? Not sure I like this move considering I'm planning on buying the new iMac.

Hate them but yes Samsung scores very highly for display technology. LG is average at best in comparison. I doubt Apple really cares though as long as their margins remain unaffected, 99.99% of consumers will never know the difference.

[g0odfr1end102]

LG folks must be having a good day

[flopticalcube]

Originally Posted by JarScott

Won't this cause big problems for Samsung's profits? It was my understanding that Apple pays Samsung millions of $ to produce parts. I know Samsung will probably stay afloat with TV and smartphone sales but they're surely become a whole load less wealthy because of this?

Samsung makes $1/4 trillion in revenue every year. I doubt they will cry much.

[Tiger8]

Originally Posted by brock2621

Good news. Keep it up! I'm sure this hammers Damsung profit margins.

15 million to 0 in 12 months...

No it won't. I think this is bad for both companies.

NO ONE has LCDs like Samsung, no one. They are the number one LCD manufacturer in the world and no one matches them.

[Northgrove]

Originally Posted by JarScott

Won't this cause big problems for Samsung's profits? It was my understanding that Apple pays Samsung millions of $ to produce parts. I know Samsung will probably stay afloat with TV and smartphone sales but they're surely become a whole load less wealthy because of this?

Yes, Apple is a big customer and this will definitely affect their production lines:

The report claims that Samsung shipped approximately 15 million LCD panels to Apple in the first half of 2012, with the pace falling to 3 million panels in the third quarter and expected to drop to 1.5 million in the fourth quarter as Apple has shifted to other suppliers.

However, I wonder if this will still affect profits much. Samsung was supposedly producing these for Apple at "huge price discounts", so Samsung may not consider this a major problem. From their side, it's like getting rid of a pretty greedy customer, although they gave them a lot of orders. They've probably calculated on the risks of going here a lot already.

I'm personally worried a bit about the quality of Apple's new displays. I can sense a "display-gate" brewing in a not too distant future. Imagine one where forthcoming iMac's or MacBook Pro's with Retina displays have LCD issues and you just don't have that "Samsung option". This is what worries me at least.

[tasset]

I look at this much in the same way as the Maps app firestorm. Apple could:
A) stick to the market leader (Google for maps, or Samsung for components) and further entrench their rivals and also making a secondary competitor (themselves for maps, or LG/Panasonic/Sharp etc) that much further behind.
B) Get the ball rolling and suffer short-term pain to build up independence from Google/Samsung.

Seeing as how Google and Samsung have wielded their power to knockoff Apple's IP, I can't say I blame Apple for going with option B and push other vendors in their supply chain.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Originally Posted by iGrip

If this will allow Apple to increase their profit margins, I'm totally in favor of it!

Way to go. I was thinking the same thing. What matters most to all of us consumers is Apple's profits. Along those lines, how about this: why don't we all just start sending Apple a monthly check for nothing... so that Apple can book it as pure profit. They could book 100% profit margins on those "sales" and really fatten up their cash reserve and exec bonuses.

Similarly, I was thinking maybe they could pull even more hardware out of stuff they produce but keep the typical pricing the same (or raise it). Then we could all rally against those who gripe about getting less inside by telling them they can buy external equipment and hook it up. Again, including less but charging the same or more would fatten Apple's profits. And that's paramount to us consumers.

And for what Apple does leave inside new stuff, could they please use even more proprietary connectors, etc (often with no tangible benefit beyond Apple service lock-in)... so that we pretty much have to do business with Apple when things fail or need upgrades? I enjoy some of the cheerleaders here offering "don't like it, don't buy it" and "99% of people never want to upgrade anyway" and so on. What's important is having only one source of repair/upgrades- Apple- and paying up for adapters to link to industry standards... and paying up for third party hardware that had to license proprietary connector technology from Apple. We just love maximizing Apple's profits.

[iSee]

This stinks.

Apple loses a very good component supplier (seems like where you might get a component from Samsung or some other supplier, you always want the Samsung part -- this was true of my 11" 2011 MBA).

Samsung is losing a lot of business.

I hope it's worth it to both to lose a very successful component supplier relationship fighting over phone designs.

[sparkhill]

This clearly hurts Samsung more than Apple. Sure, Samsung makes great displays and chips. But, without fore knowledge of what Apple is designing, the next "innovative" Samsung product will hit the market much later.