Apple Diversifying Memory Suppliers Too, Moving Away from Samsung

[Tonewheel]

Perhaps they should just stick to making washing machines.

----------

How come these stupid spats are happening under MBA Tim's regime, not The Steve's?

Someone without an MBA has a chip on their shoulder. 🙄

 

[*LTD*]

Or, more likely, that Apple screws itself by divorcing itself from one of the largest and most innovative suppliers.

How come these stupid spats are happening under MBA Tim's regime, not The Steve's?

They were happening before Steve stepped down. In fact, Apple's been dragging competitors into court since the early days. This stuff is nothing new. It's trademark Apple.

You're just seeing a lot more of it now because Apple has much greater interests in different markets. They aren't just about computers and Mac OS anymore.

 

[aohus]

damn.

Samsung, sometimes you piss me off.

 

[CrAkD]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

It will be really funny IMHO if these series of spat ended up putting Samsung out of business! 😀

May the best company (or team of lawyers) win! 😛

Or, more likely, that Apple screws itself by divorcing itself from one of the largest and most innovative suppliers.

How come these stupid spats are happening under MBA Tim's regime, not The Steve's?

Seriously? The man resigned less then a month ago last I checked these legal battles with samsung have been going on for months. This is the first thing out of people mouths now. It'll take a few years before news of stuff reaches us that DIDN'T happen under steve but Tim.

 

[jontech]

Minus the fact that is will have zero effect on Samsung. Hell Apple leaving them could easily mean more profits for Samsung not less.
You need to remember there is a shortage of flash memory. All Sammy will do is go down the street to the next guy and sell to them for the same or even more money.
Instead of having one client they might have 2 for the same amount but the net effect is nothing.

I guess the next guy will say "I'll take 25 million orders please".... uH right

 

[jaw04005]

It would be interesting to see how much Samsung's tablet and smartphone business (in terms of revenue) compares to their business from Apple.

Apple can't really keep using Samsung as a supplier if they're just going to take the inside knowledge they gain by knowing what parts Apple buys to create their own competing products.

 

[marksman]

Apple needs suppliers. It's a two way street.

I am sure you don't understand a discussion as complex as this, but in a business with multiple capable suppliers, the supplier needs the customer much more then vice-versa.

When it comes to being the biggest customer in an industry it is even moreso.... So no in this case Apple does not need suppliers as it could just create new ones that would put the old ones out of business.

Apple could ultimately enable other businesses to replace all of what Samsung does. Samsung can not enable other businesses to buy the close to 8 billion dollars of product Apple buys.

 

[Peterg2]

Given Samsung's lousy numbers last quarter, they need all the business they can get. But Apple has to diversify suppliers due to increased demand anyway.

The results were a bit below expectations but to say they were lousy and they need all the business they can get???

Read here: http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2011/07/29/samsungs-earnings-5-lessons-from-2q/

"Samsung Electronics Co.’s second-quarter results on Friday delivered the outcome most investors were expecting – lower profit overall, with smartphones giving a big boost to the company’s cellphone business but not enough to offset cyclical downturns in chips and LCDs. Amid all that, the company is on track for one of its biggest annual profits ever."

and here are the results:

http://www.samsung.com/us/news/presskitRead.do?page=1&news_seq=19897

One Korean won currently is worth US$0.0009

Hyperbole is definitely your strong suit.

 

[oliversl]

Samsung can sue Apple all that he want, but it will never get a $7.8 billion contract again.

 

[wikus]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

That's what you get for biting the hand that fed you, Sammy.

I realize that an apple based forum will have mainly pro-apple fanboys, but this kind of delusional train of thought really needs to stop.

Its the hand that feeds Apple, not the other way around. And since Apple has been gung-ho about lawsuits with, everyone, Toshiba is setting itself up for a nice surprise from apple.

Please be more objective when defending Apple. Bias and blind faith doesnt help anyone.

 

[KPOM]

Until Windows 8 takes the tablet market by storm.

Even if it does, Apple is still likely to be one of the largest single consumers of RAM and NAND. Remember, "Windows" isn't a PC manufacturer.

 

[wikus]

Plus, they (Toshiba) are pioneers in the Solid-state market as well.

Absolutely and completely FALSE.

The real pioneers in SSDs are... anyone else. OCZ runs literally circles around any toshiba SSD, theirs are significantly faster. Intel's reliability, or, failures rates are some of the lowest in the industry and prove to be some of the fastest as well.

Take any other SSD manufacturer; Crucial, Kingston, etc... they all perform better than apple's overpriced rebranded crap SSDs that toshiba provides them.

 

[oliversl]

Apple is Samsung's biggest customer. Your biggest customer is the one that give you the most money and the most earnings. So yes, Apple is feeding Samsung, no fanboy blind or bias here, just look at the facts.

What happen if you bite your customer's hand?, he goes away. And that is exactly what is happening here.

I realize that an apple based forum will have mainly pro-apple fanboys, but this kind of delusional train of thought really needs to stop.

Its the hand that feeds Apple, not the other way around. And since Apple has been gung-ho about lawsuits with, everyone, Toshiba is setting itself up for a nice surprise from apple.

Please be more objective when defending Apple. Bias and blind faith doesnt help anyone.

 

[AidenShaw]

Apple isn't in the insurance, heavy machinery, construction, or shipbuilding business. Compare apples to apples (bad pun intended).

They should be, though. I'd love to see them rearranging the deck chairs on the Apple Itanic!

Oops, we hit an open standard in the middle of the North Atlantic, and it ripped a huge hole in our walled garden of a hull.

 

[Savor]

I'm still lukewarm about how well mobile apps will translate to the desktop. Remember all the bashers who were criticizing the rumored integration of iOS 5 into Lion? There's no doubt that Windows 8 will be dominate PC OS sales, but how much consumers will buy into Metro remains to be seen. Just because they have a mobile OS doesn't mean that they will go out and buy a device to use it on.

I think people will get used to the Metro UI over time. As long as most still get the other programs from Windows Office.

I know Apple can NEVER make this into a "spec war" vs Android manufacturers. How could Apple possibly win at having the most advanced specs in a phone when they only release a new one ONCE per year and most of the Android makers happen to be iPhone suppliers themselves? We have companies like Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instrument, and Marvell who are all part of the Android Open Handset Alliance and all provide components for different smartphones. Sammy supplies the chip, LG manufactures the screen, and it is rumored Sony will provide the camera module for the next iPhone.

With all that said, I still believe Microsoft is the greater danger. They have the tools to put the correct ecosystem in place. They partnered with the greatest cell phone seller in the world and bought Skype. They will introduce a new Xbox in a couple years. The halo effect worked for people who bought iPods and then started buying other Apple products across the board. Windows has a far greater reach in their market. Microsoft has over 450M of Windows 7 sold after just two years. That is more than double than Apple has iTunes accounts and W7 isn't free.

Tablets will be relegated to a niche product once this craze dies out. It does a half-ass job on productivity. It is mostly going to be used for surfing the web, multimedia, and games already features found on cell phones. No big corporation is going to start replacing their computers for tablets anytime soon. Tablets is mostly for play. When we start having laptops with a touchscreen at over 15 inches, then expect another surge for Windows again. There is a greater differentiation comparing a cell phone vs laptop over a cell phone vs tablet.

 

[/V\acpower]

Apple needs suppliers. It's a two way street.

It's true in a sense, but both sides are not equally in need of the other.

From the perspective of Apple, it is relatively easy to find companies that ultimately can supply them with the part they need. If its not Samsung, they can find someone else relatively easily.

However the problem for the suppliers is that ultimately they need companies that can convince the customers to buy the product, and it is very hard to find a company that can promise big sale numbers like Apple can. At least, it is way harder for a supplier to find a client like Apple than it is for Apple to find a supplier that fit his need.

I mean, ultimately one of the the most "precious" thing for a company to have in the industry is what Apple have : a big loyal and satisfied consumer base that is willing to pay a bit more for quality.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Minus the fact that is will have zero effect on Samsung. Hell Apple leaving them could easily mean more profits for Samsung not less.
You need to remember there is a shortage of flash memory. All Sammy will do is go down the street to the next guy and sell to them for the same or even more money.
Instead of having one client they might have 2 for the same amount but the net effect is nothing.

Right... is LG gonna walk up and place an order for 10 million components? Motorola?

Like others have said... when Apple is your customer... it's smooth sailing.

Samsung might find new customers... but not any that can order parts for 20 million cell phones and 10 million tablets at one time.

 

[wikus]

Apple is Samsung's biggest customer. Your biggest customer is the one that give you the most money and the most earnings. So yes, Apple is feeding Samsung, no fanboy blind or bias here, just look at the facts.

What happen if you bite your customer's hand?, he goes away. And that is exactly what is happening here.

You could look at it that, you know, from an apple fanboy perspective.

But the reality is that Samsung was supplying parts to Apple and then Apple decided to sue Samsung... biting the hand that feeds them. Surely you remember the fiasco?

Samsung losing Apple isn't going to cripple their business. There are enough companys wanting NAND memory from Samsung.

Remember when Apple made a deal with samsung to get dibs on memory for their ipods, at such a low price and so much memory that competitors could not compete because the two companys were in bed togehter? Superior products like the iAudio S9 had to be priced MUCH higher than usual. Thus (though not the only reason) apple destroyed competition... but there were PLENTY of companies that wanted a piece of the NAND memory from Samsung.

But I don't expect pro-apple members on this forum to agree with anything that puts apple in a bad light....

 

[macnews]

I have often wondered why Apple doesn't buy from Crucial. I know Apple adds a huge markup on the Samsung RAM when they sell to the consumer but their RAM is ALWAYS more than Crucial. This makes me think if Apple knocked on their door they would or at least should be able to match Samsung.

Come on Apple, work it out.

 

[hcho3]

Samsung stock is down more than 4%.

Nice...

Apple has no control about this what so ever.

 

[wovel]

Apple needs suppliers. It's a two way street.

Not really, despite what people here claim, there are plenty of suppliers out there that can match Samsung's quality. The quality Apple demands will be the same and has likely already been assured for anything they are removing from Samsung, the LG problem was an anomaly it was not based on leaving Samsung, it was needing more supply in a hurry.

Or, more likely, that Apple screws itself by divorcing itself from one of the largest and most innovative suppliers.

How come these stupid spats are happening under MBA Tim's regime, not The Steve's?

You really have not paid much attention to anything. These changes have been going on for well over a year.

The Korean government will throw Samsung anything they need. How do Apple and Samsung compare revenue wise?

Apple's $7.3b in profit is more than twice Samsung's $2.6b in profit last quarter. Profit is considerably more important than revenue. Particularly when we are discussing the ability of a company to react to change. If you want to look at trends. Apple set a record last quarter and Samsung profits have declined for at least the past two.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)



Apple isn't in the insurance, heavy machinery, construction, or shipbuilding business. Compare apples to apples (bad pun intended).

How terribly they must be run to have a large financial services component and tiny little profits. What point were you attempting to make?

And Samsung's revenue is north of $130 million per year. Apple is about 7% of Samsung's revenue, hardly enough to cripple the company.

So Samsung is a terribly inefficient company. I get it. Most conglomerates end up being terrible investments. The profitable pieces are just drug down by the trash. Think about it for a minute. Apple made twice the profit on 7% of the revenue...

I realize that an apple based forum will have mainly pro-apple fanboys, but this kind of delusional train of thought really needs to stop.

Its the hand that feeds Apple, not the other way around. And since Apple has been gung-ho about lawsuits with, everyone, Toshiba is setting itself up for a nice surprise from apple.

Please be more objective when defending Apple. Bias and blind faith doesnt help anyone.

While you just called nearly everyone else on the forum delusional, you seem to be the one with blinders on. Apple can have any supplier they want. They are the biggest customer in the world for all of these components. If you believe losing them will have no impact, you are well beyond delusional.

 

[heisetax]

Good for both

I was always taught that one should try never to do over 10% of ones business with anyone person or company. Sometimes that can not happen but it gives good protection from the feast or famine.

 

[Laird Knox]

Until Windows 8 takes the tablet market by storm.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

*deep breath*

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

*chuckle*

And Samsung's revenue is north of $130 million per year. Apple is about 7% of Samsung's revenue, hardly enough to cripple the company.

New math?

I know you meant "billion" but even so...

Apple's FY11 will be north of $100 billion - the last quarter alone was over $28 billion. FY12 will be even bigger.

Last I checked 100 is not 7% of 136.

 

[AidenShaw]

Seriously? The man resigned less then a month ago....

The Turtlenecked Overlord went on a open-ended medical leave of absence more than eight months ago....

A month ago he formally resigned, because his condition was not improving.

 

[wovel]

You could look at it that, you know, from an apple fanboy perspective.

But the reality is that Samsung was supplying parts to Apple and then Apple decided to sue Samsung... biting the hand that feeds them. Surely you remember the fiasco?

Samsung losing Apple isn't going to cripple their business. There are enough companys wanting NAND memory from Samsung.

Remember when Apple made a deal with samsung to get dibs on memory for their ipods, at such a low price and so much memory that competitors could not compete because the two companys were in bed togehter? Superior products like the iAudio S9 had to be priced MUCH higher than usual. Thus (though not the only reason) apple destroyed competition... but there were PLENTY of companies that wanted a piece of the NAND memory from Samsung.

But I don't expect pro-apple members on this forum to agree with anything that puts apple in a bad light....

How about the perspective of reality and facts? Samsung profits fell 30% in Q1 and 18% in Q2. The company is in a freefall. Losing their biggest customer will hurt and hurt a lot. A big part of the business they will lose to TSMC is custom fabrication work, picking up another customer the size of Apple is not going to happen overnight or even in a quarter. (if the A6 rumors are true). Perhaps other people will buy the NAND, but if they can't raise their price, they will make less money.

Samsung made a mistake. The folks at the top let the mobile division run out of control. Will they go out of business? No. Are their investors going to continue to take a beating for the foreseeable future, absolutely.

I believe Samsung felt like they could get away with the copying because Apple needed them. I even believe that was true for a couple years. Unfortunately for them, Tim figured that out a couple years ago and they have been spending cash to enhance their supply chain. These things do not happen overnight.