Apple Shifting A5 Production From Samsung to TSMC?

[pmz]

Samsung competes and partners with almost every major technology manufacturer out there; I would find it very odd that Apple would shift away from Samsung just because Samsung makes competing products.

Obviously you don't actually understand the relationship here.

They operate like most other major Korean or Japanese companies, in which backstabbing is part of the normal day, and they literally don't understand when American companies get angry at this. I've seen it in person many times over the years, where this blank expression and lack of understanding represents their entire side of a screw-over-job.

It was well known from the start that Samsung would inevitably decide to rip off the R&D done by Apple, by back-room assembling all of the same parts ordered by Apple. I'm surprised Apple has lasted this long in this business relationship, and it was probably out of necessity-only, for the last year or two, while they cultivated a new relationship.

 

[OllyW]

^^ That along with the fact the steve slams samsung at every opportunity now

He's been slamming them with $7.8 billion in contracts.

 

[fertilized-egg]

Apple primarily uses LG panels.

But they still diversified their display suppliers and even invested in other makers. With Apple's massive demands, it'll be silly for them to rely on any single supplier of components.

 

[shartypants]

Makes sense, TSMC is a good foundry. Less reliance on Samsung good as well.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

$teve Job$ layeth the smackdown. First, intentionally misquoting Samsug, lying about their sales and now removing them from their production pipeline. Man.. when Steve's ego gets in the way, heads roll!!!

Idiotic, simplistic posts such as this blow my mind. Apple is multi-billion dollar company- do you honestly believe major strategic decisions are spontaneous made based on Jobs' ego?!

Why would people think he 'intentionally' misquoted Samsung? I mean, would that be a smart thing to do, knowing he would be called on it by the entire internet? And if he's ok with making up quotes, I'm sure he could have come up with something more interesting. Do you think Steve sits at home making these presentations? They're made by a team. That quote was most probably inserted by a careless employee, who managed to miss the correction, and it somehow made it to the final presentation without someone noticing and removing the defunct quote. Logically, it was a case of ignorance. The fact that people would think Steve had prior knowledge of this and used it anyway blows my mind.

Secondly, you think major production decisions and shifts are based on Steves ego? These are extremely complex operations which are studied by multitudes of people, and decisions include careful, long term assessment and numerous factors. Apple wouldn't make these kinds of decisions, especially when they include core components for your most important product, on emotion or ego. The fact that you believe so shows a scary amount of naivity.

 

[Thunderhawks]

$teve Job$ layeth the smackdown. First, intentionally misquoting Samsug, lying about their sales and now removing them from their production pipeline. Man.. when Steve's ego gets in the way, heads roll!!!

Don't know what kind of beef you always have with Apple or SJ, but............

Clearly this is in the interest of Apple as far as not being dependent on a competitor.

Why should Samsung get inside info with even a blueprint to copy more easily?

If Samsung didn't have display technology patents Apple would not buy the displays from them either.
I bet Apple is already looking into the next technology and will invest in it.

 

[0087215]

Hmmm, does it mean that the A5 chips in iPad 2s, which will be sold coming Friday, have actually been produced by TSMC?

According to this article, it is still unclear. So, I suppose TSMC have already started making A5 chips for Apple . http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4213873/Apple--TSMC-to-expand-foundry-ties

 

[Thunderhawks]

Idiotic, simplistic posts such as this blow my mind. Apple is multi-billion dollar company- do you honestly believe major strategic decisions are spontaneous made based on Jobs' ego?!

Why would people think he 'intentionally' misquoted Samsung? I mean, would that be a smart thing to do, knowing he would be called on it by the entire internet? And if he's ok with making up quotes, I'm sure he could have come up with something more interesting. Do you think Steve sits at home making these presentations? They're made by a team. That quote was most probably inserted by a careless employee, who managed to miss the correction, and it somehow made it to the final presentation without someone noticing and removing the defunct quote. Logically, it was a case of ignorance. The fact that people would think Steve had prior knowledge of this and used it anyway blows my mind.

Secondly, you think major production decisions and shifts are based on Steves ego? These are extremely complex operations which are studied by multitudes of people, and decisions include careful, long term assessment and numerous factors. Apple wouldn't make these kinds of decisions, especially when they include core components for your most important product, on emotion or ego. The fact that you believe so shows a scary amount of naivity.

This guy likes to stir the pot with generic statements that don't show a lot of thinking things through. Look at his sign off.

Amusing

 

[chrmjenkins]

That whole intrinisity A4/Hummingbird thing was obviously a one time deal. A5 and Orion are completely separate entities this time around it seems.

 

[Tailpike1153]

I wonder if the move away from Samsung could also be a clue that the the PA Semi and Intrinsity acquisitions are going to yield the uber ARM derivative or perhaps some truly unique SOC the world hasn't seen? A4 was a Hummingbird. I don't now if the A5 is Samsung in disguise or a Samsung cousin. Moving to TSMC, would give Apple the ability finally develop with lower fear of corporate espionage. Now if TSMC puts out a mp3 player/phone/tablet next year all bets are off.

 

[Thunderhawks]

^^ That along with the fact the steve slams samsung at every opportunity now

Any chance you can quote the many (every) opportunities he did this at?

 

[Thunderhawks]

Obviously you don't actually understand the relationship here.

They operate like most other major Korean or Japanese companies, in which backstabbing is part of the normal day, and they literally don't understand when American companies get angry at this. I've seen it in person many times over the years, where this blank expression and lack of understanding represents their entire side of a screw-over-job.

It was well known from the start that Samsung would inevitably decide to rip off the R&D done by Apple, by back-room assembling all of the same parts ordered by Apple. I'm surprised Apple has lasted this long in this business relationship, and it was probably out of necessity-only, for the last year or two, while they cultivated a new relationship.

In the Asian culture COPYING the master is supposedly a compliment to the master. So, they don't have any problems with it.

Asia's entire development was based on copying for the longest time. Once they started evaluating and adding their thoughts to what they were copying they became the masters.

I laugh when USA thinks they are the greatest economy in the world.

When it comes to money Asia OWNs them already for several years.

Without the US military power they would be begging the IMF for assistance.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

I think Samsung wil lose more from no longer manufacturing for Apple than they will lose on their own tablet.

 

[Erwin-Br]

It's going into a key Apple product.

That should answer your question.

That doesn't answer anything, because there have been serious hardware defects in Apple products in the past. Apple is no different from other companies in that regard.

 

[jav6454]

Noo!!! Bad Apple! Not with TSMC!!

They are responsible for the ATI HD 5000s fiasco in poor supplies! And also responsible for nVidia's GTX 400 fiasco as well!

Please Apple stay away from them!

Why not go with GlobalFoundries instead? Much better.

 

[OllyW]

That doesn't answer anything, because there have been serious hardware defects in Apple products in the past. Apple is no different from other companies in that regard.

You are wasting your time, *LTD* thinks Apple are perfect and can do nothing wrong.

 

[HitchHykr]

$teve Job$ layeth the smackdown. First, intentionally misquoting Samsug, lying about their sales and now removing them from their production pipeline. Man.. when Steve's ego gets in the way, heads roll!!!

I'm sure $amsung is just selling products for the good of mankind...

 

[farmboy]

It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what products Samsung makes that compete with Apple. It does at least have to do with having a second qualified vendor for process-critical components, especially when you are projecting huge volumes. Just smart.

 

[0087215]

So, which A5 chips are we going to get this week in the iPads 2? Those made by TSMC?

 

[Xeperu]

Never outsource a core competency (to a competitor)

Chip manufacturing is not a core competence of Apple. Any first year business student will tell you.

Apples core competences are pretty much design and marketing, not manufacturing.

 

[chrmjenkins]

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) Mobile/8C148)

Noo!!! Bad Apple! Not with TSMC!!

They are responsible for the ATI HD 5000s fiasco in poor supplies! And also responsible for nVidia's GTX 400 fiasco as well!

Please Apple stay away from them!

Why not go with GlobalFoundries instead? Much better.

400 series was Nvidia's own damn fault. They didn't understand the process and as a result got poor yield and high power consumption. ATI did just fine with the same process.

 

[toddybody]

Im honestly surprised the stuck with Samsung as long as they did...IMHO, Steve was far too critical of Samsung, especially in light of Samsung being such an integral part supplier. It's like "Oh ha ha, Samsung sucks...but uh...theyre actually the most quality, efficient, and magical parts when I put them in some aluminum with fruit on the back" - Steve

for heavens sake, Samsung actually has the HONESTY to say when theyre products are not what they should be...unlike some companies I know of

 

[WLS]

Hmmm, does it mean that the A5 chips in iPad 2s, which will be sold coming Friday, have actually been produced by TSMC?

According to this article, it is still unclear. So, I suppose TSMC have already started making A5 chips for Apple . http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4213873/Apple--TSMC-to-expand-foundry-ties

Or does it mean they will be Samsung and later iPads will have the TSMC chips and if so will they be better? I've seen some hints they will be 40nm instead of the Samsung 45nm
??

 

[jav6454]

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) Mobile/8C148)



400 series was Nvidia's own damn fault. They didn't understand the process and as a result got poor yield and high power consumption. ATI did just fine with the same process.

True nVidia had fault with the GTX400s but it got worse with TSMCs low yields. ATI on the other hand did fine, but could have done much better if TSMC would have gotten their ***** together.

I mean, for the first 6 months, their was a complete dry stock of HD 5800s series.

 

[0087215]

Or does it mean they will be Samsung and later iPads will have the TSMC chips and if so will they be better? I've seen some hints they will be 40nm instead of the Samsung 45nm
??

Indeed! That's what I am thinking as well. If those A5 chips to be found in the iPads this week are made by Samsung, then perhaps it is a good idea to wait till we will know with certainty that TSMC took the Samsung's job over and then buy an iPad2.... Hmm...