Apple Looking to Hire Samsung Battery Experts and Other High-Tech Employees

[MacRumors]

Apple is hiring away Samsung employees working on next-generation technology, including signal- and visual-processing management, according to The Korea Times.

The report, citing unnamed officials at the South Korean tech giant, also claims that Apple has expanded its recruitment efforts to focus on Samsung personnel with expertise in battery technology amid rumors that it is working on an electric vehicle project.

"Some of our personnel have been hired by Apple. They now work at Apple's headquarters in San Jose, Calif.," said one official, adding that Apple offers highly-competitive benefits and large annual paychecks.

"Those former Samsung workers are given greater independence to proceed with their tasks. Apple prefers to use Samsung's chip experts because they are very diligent, mission-oriented and are prepared to acquire new knowledge," said another official.

Apple has reportedly assembled an automotive team with hundreds of employees working at a "top-secret research lab" near its Cupertino, California headquarters. Apple appears to be recruiting battery experts from multiple companies to join the team, as the company also faces a lawsuit for poaching key battery engineers from A123 Systems. That lawsuit also listed Samsung as one of the companies that Apple has been poaching battery engineers from.

Apple's appetite for hiring former Samsung personnel has expanded to the battery arena as the Cupertino-based company is reportedly developing electric vehicles, which means Apple needs battery experts. [...]

"As the electric vehicle business is a new one, Apple needs patents and experts in battery technology. Top human resources firms have been approaching Samsung's battery experts, individually, and I think such human exchange moves are a win-win for both," said the official.

Earlier this month, multiple reports from credible sources claimed that Apple is working on an electric and possibly autonomous vehicle that could enter production in 2020. Some other reports, however, downplay the rumors by claiming that Apple is working on expanding its dashboard presence through CarPlay. Any electric car project at Apple is likely in the early stages of research and development at this time.

Article Link: Apple Looking to Hire Samsung Battery Experts and Other High-Tech Employees

 

[nando87]

Tim Cook has just gone big.

Where are all those who criticised him 1-2 years ago?

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Apple is probably trying to poach from Samsung's two-week-old sCar department, brought together only by rumors of Apple making a car

 

[Abazigal]

And why not? Strengthen your own ranks while diminishing those of your strongest rivals.

 

[2457282]

I hope this is true. Apple has reportedly been trying to diversify away from Samsung for it A-chips, but has been unable to do so. Therefore, it makes sense to get the brain trust over to Apple and develop it itself. I know this article says its about batteries, but I am just hopeful this goes beyond that.

 

[dannyyankou]

Between the rumors of iOS 9 bringing stability, public beta testing, and now this, Apple is making the right moves lately.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Tim Cook has just gone big.

Where are all those who criticised him 1-2 years ago?

Still here. Big Concepts do not equate to Big Realization. I still have big $ bets on Apple and Cook but he has yet to fully prove himself as the successor of Jobs as an idea guy. We will get a better glimpse of that as the Apple Watch rolls out, and of course between 2015 and 2020 Apple needs to have other all-new products. It can't just depend on the iPhone. 2020 is a long time away in corporate fiscal years.

 

[Rogifan]

Tim Cook has just gone big.

Where are all those who criticised him 1-2 years ago?

It is interesting how just a few years ago people were questioning whether Apple needed to replace Tim Cook, there were rumors that the board was pressuring him to innovate faster etc. Heck just last month Engadet ran an article wondering when Apple became the boring one. Now with rumors of Apple doing R&D in the automobile space these same concern trolls are fearful that Apple is losing its focus, no longer believes in 'a thousand noes for every yes' etc. So basically no matter what Apple does it can't win. It's either too boring of losing focus.

 

[Glideslope]

This has nothing to do with Tim Cook other that getting the Boards approval for the project. This is Marc Newson's Mind being let loose with resources he has never experienced. It will be much more than just a form of Electric Transportation.

2021 is more likely IMO.

 

[Rogifan]

I hope this is true. Apple has reportedly been trying to diversify away from Samsung for it A-chips, but has been unable to do so. Therefore, it makes sense to get the brain trust over to Apple and develop it itself. I know this article says its about batteries, but I am just hopeful this goes beyond that.

What does Samsung develop for Apple's A chips? I thought they were just a fab.

 

[Steve121178]

Between the rumors of iOS 9 bringing stability, public beta testing, and now this, Apple is making the right moves lately.

Or slowly/finally reacting to massive mistakes and blunders, if you want to look at it another way.

 

[dannyyankou]

Or slowly/finally reacting to massive mistakes and blunders, if you want to look at it another way.

As opposed to ignoring the mistakes and doing nothing about them? They're still good moves no matter how you look at it.

 

[freediverx]

I'm curious to see if anyone gets any traction trying to sue Apple for poaching.

As you may recall, last year Apple and Google settled an antitrust lawsuit over allegations they colluded in order to not poach each other's talent. I'm assuming that if it's illegal for companies to agree not to hire each other's talent then it's then perfectly legal for them to aggressively poach each other's talent.

Can't have it both ways.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

It is interesting how just a few years ago people were questioning whether Apple needed to replace Tim Cook, there were rumors that the board was pressuring him to innovate faster etc. Heck just last month Engadet ran an article wondering when Apple became the boring one. Now with rumors of Apple doing R&D in the automobile space these same concern trolls are fearful that Apple is losing its focus, no longer believes in 'a thousand noes for every yes' etc. So basically no matter what Apple does it can't win. It's either too boring of losing focus.

If Apple were moving more aggressively into TV or VR that wouldn't be boring or losing focus. Apple is a consumer electronics company... EVs are not consumer electronics. Swapping out a gas engine for a battery doesn't magically move automotives from one market into another.

 

[Rogifan]

Or slowly/finally reacting to massive mistakes and blunders, if you want to look at it another way.

Massive mistakes and blunders? A bit hyperbolic, no? You don't sell more product than you ever have in history if those products are full of massive mistakes and blunders.

 

[Steve121178]

As opposed to ignoring the mistakes and doing nothing about them? They're still good moves no matter how you look at it.

I think they've realised there was only so long they could get away with doing that. Time is up so they have to improve the quality of their software (in particular) and hardware (to a lesser extent) and stop expecting paying customers to willingly act as beta testers.

I'm not arguing that they are not good moves because they are, it's just something that should have been addressed a while ago.

 

[amro]

Still here. Big Concepts do not equate to Big Realization. I still have big $ bets on Apple and Cook but he has yet to fully prove himself as the successor of Jobs as an idea guy. We will get a better glimpse of that as the Apple Watch rolls out, and of course between 2015 and 2020 Apple needs to have other all-new products. It can't just depend on the iPhone. 2020 is a long time away in corporate fiscal years.

As a CEO successor, he has proven himself. As an idea guy, I don't know, but he is bringing in other idea guys. And it looks like he's giving them the freedom to explore. But will it all be unified? Jobs could see the "big picture". I don't see where an Apple car fits into the Apple's big picture.

Still, it's an interesting ride (npi). And nowhere near as dull has had been predicted when Cook took over.

 

[LordVic]

It is interesting how just a few years ago people were questioning whether Apple needed to replace Tim Cook, there were rumors that the board was pressuring him to innovate faster etc. Heck just last month Engadet ran an article wondering when Apple became the boring one. Now with rumors of Apple doing R&D in the automobile space these same concern trolls are fearful that Apple is losing its focus, no longer believes in 'a thousand noes for every yes' etc. So basically no matter what Apple does it can't win. It's either too boring of losing focus.

didn't help that the better part of 2013/2014 had tim Cook and Apple Co. telling everyone

"Best pipeline in years" or "best product lineup ever coming out".

then releasing nothing but "thinner" versions of what was already out.

This didn't impress people. It made Apple under Tim Cook seem like it lost something and became nothing more than a large company with a bean counter at its helm.

Still not convinced it's anything but a large company with a bean counter at it's helm. But thats irrelevant. Tim Cook as far as CEO's goes, has done a fantastic job. He might not be the Product guy that Job's was, but he's by far a better financial CEO. More in line with what CEO's in corporations are supposed to be, Not a rock star.

 

[Jsameds]

Tim Cook has just gone big.

Where are all those who criticised him 1-2 years ago?

Still busy trying to upgrade their Macbook's RAM

 

[Steve121178]

You don't sell more product than you ever have in history if those products are full of massive mistakes and blunders.

Yes they can because they can get away with promising users that these issues/bugs will be patched by some undetermined point in time.

I personally haven't been affected by the many Wi-Fi issues that affect many different devices, but I know plenty of people tearing their hair out over issues that have still not been addressed. How can something as simple as Wi-Fi still be an issue in 2015? How can Apple keep screwing this up year after year?

Then there's various issues/problems with OS X that have not been resolved thanks to the ludicrous rapid release schedule for OS X. Again I have not been too inconvenienced by this although 10.10.2 did resolve most of my issues, but I shouldn't have had to wait months for problems identified by beta testers over half a year ago to finally get a fix. I know plenty of people who had to roll back to Mavericks as Yosemite broke something significant.

Apple are too damn slow to react to things and QA went out the window a while ago.

 

[Rogifan]

If Apple were moving more aggressively into TV or VR that wouldn't be boring or losing focus. Apple is a consumer electronics company... EVs are not consumer electronics. Swapping out a gas engine for a battery doesn't magically move automotives from one market into another.

TV is all about content and how one acquires and pays for that content. I suppose Apple could get into the content producing business but what does that have to do with consumer electronics? And personally I think VR is going to be more niche like the gaming industry. But we've seen a number of VR related patents from Apple so one would assume it's something Apple is looking at. I'm still not convinced it's the next iPhone.

Perhaps Tim Cook is looking at how large Apple is ($182B in revenues lady FY; market cap of $756B as of this morning) and thinking they need to go beyond consumer electronics. Or he thinks the car is going to be more and more about software and this is some place Apple has the ability to disrupt.

 

[bigrell486]

Apple is probably trying to poach from Samsung's two-week-old sCar department, brought together only by rumors of Apple making a car

Um, Samsung has been making cars since 1994. I know you're being cheeky but still...

 

[mrhick01]

Still here. Big Concepts do not equate to Big Realization. I still have big $ bets on Apple and Cook but he has yet to fully prove himself as the successor of Jobs as an idea guy. We will get a better glimpse of that as the Apple Watch rolls out, and of course between 2015 and 2020 Apple needs to have other all-new products. It can't just depend on the iPhone. 2020 is a long time away in corporate fiscal years.

Why does Cook have to be the "idea guy?" Why are you expecting him to be Jobs?

In my opinion, an unreasonable expectation. Cook is the guy Jobs picked. Let Cook be Cook.

 

[Rogifan]

As a CEO successor, he has proven himself. As an idea guy, I don't know, but he is bringing in other idea guys. And it looks like he's giving them the freedom to explore. But will it all be unified? Jobs could see the "big picture". I don't see where an Apple car fits into the Apple's big picture.

Still, it's an interesting ride (npi). And nowhere near as dull has had been predicted when Cook took over.

What is Apple's big picture? And how could Jobs know 4 or 5 years ago what the landscape will be like 5-10 years from now? If you believe any of the rumors an Apple car is 5 years away from release. A lot can happen in 5 years.

----------

Why does Cook have to be the "idea guy?" Why are you expecting him to be Jobs?

In my opinion, an unreasonable expectation. Cook is the guy Jobs picked. Let Cook be Cook.

And why does one person have to be the ideas guy anyway. Yeah it might have been that way with Jobs (though I suspect some of that was the perception Jobs wanted spun in the media) but Apple has a lot of very talented employees. All the big ideas don't have to emanate from the top.

 

[jafingi]

It's so exciting to follow Apple at the moment! I really admire what Cook has done. I think he's the best person post-Jobs to lead Apple.

And if Apple could get the right battery experts, they would really kill two birds with one stone, as they could also help improving the Watch, Macbook and iOS devices' batteries.