Samsung Taking PortalPlayer's Business?

[prism_emf]

By getting cozy with Samsung they likely get access to more than just an ARM-based processor. Samsung makes Hard Drives, Flash Memory, SDRAM, Smart Cards and LCDs. Getting more components from a single supplier reduces costs from a logistical perspective.

Additionally there's that rumor floating about that Apple are interested in the PDA/Portable market. Getting an ARM chip could well be a strong step towards that. They can use them in their iPods and everything, but they'd also be a very likely choice for a PDA processor. In fact, Apple used an ARM-derived chip in the Newton. You'll also see the ARM-derived XScale processor used in a myriad of modern handhelds such as the Blackberry and much of Palm's recent offerings.

You do know that the PortalPlayer chips are based on ARM architecture too, don't you? A PortalPlayer chip is a system-on-a-chip containing two ARM cores, SRAM memory and controller plus a DMA controller. This says nothing about Apple's future plans.

That said, I really really hope the new implementation would bring gapless MP3 playback with it. We've been waiting for too long dammit! Probably not though, since there's nothing in the PP chip that would prevent this even in current players...

 

[Agathon]

If you've ever been to Korea, you will know that it makes most places look positively Stone-aged with respect to portable electronics. You should see some of the phones people have. North American phones look steam-powered in comparison. Of course, Samsung is one of the biggest suppliers of such phones (as it is one of the largest conglomerates in Korea).

If Apple was going to make an iPhone for the US market, the easiest thing to do would be to make a phone like the ones in Korea. It would look awesome compared to its competitors in the US. And who better than Samsung to partner with, given that Samsung will be the portable electronics giant of the next 30 years.

 

[akhomerun]

i think that i'd rather see apple pick portalplayer over samsung just because samsung already has business elsewhere. i hope portalplayer is diversified enough not to go under because of this. portalplayer makes a good product, i can't see samsung's chip being all that much better.

 

[zarusoba]

Too big

i love samsung. i really do think that they put out amazingly good products, and i'm happy to see them get more business!

Samsung alone accounts for 20% of South Korea's economy. They're too damned big.

 

[deadturtle]

Any chances this new chip could bring video to the next nano ?

That would be excellent...

agree, but other than size, what would be the point of buying the regular ipod?
seems like it wouldn't justify the cost at that point.

Heh, people are already complaining about video on the 2inch(ish) iPod screen. Watching video on a Nano would be like watching an animated postage stamp. A novelty at first, but really annoying not too long after... plus you can only stuff so much battery in that thing... video will totally trash play time... however that does bring up an interesting concept... eInk postage stamps... move them close to a power source (like the eZ Pass on the Thruway) and they get all animated and stuff... that would be kinda cool! Course we'd have to overcome some of the hardware issues and make the circuitry part of the stamp.. and by that time we most likely wont be using paper postage anymore anyway.. but I digress

 

[Hattig]

Poor PortalPlayer, it sucks to have 90% of your sales with one company that suddenly just decides to switch to a competitor. Then again Apple did make PortalPlayer, and PortalPlayer have had 5 years to diversify and increase their product range.

I don't know what the Samsung SOC will give over the PortalPlayer solutions, unless Apple need faster speeds for more intensive applications. Maybe they'll integrate a DSP for video. Maybe they're physically smaller. Maybe they're cheaper. Maybe it's part of a package, this chip for iPods, and a similar chip + phone/wireless support for a future product.

It could just be cost reduced, a ~200MHz single core ARM based product for the flash based devices that requires fewer or no support chips, that's targetted exactly for the product.

 

[mmmbop]

Hmmm...

Hmmm, indeed.

I like your thinking!

 

[rockthecasbah]

if it leads to much inproved battery life (24 hours maybe *prays* ) then i'm happy. Apple really needs to step up the performance area of their iPods if they want to continue with their strong sales.

and no video on a nano is a really bad idea. Just use the progress for performance enhancements, not video capabilities .

 

[boncellis]

This is where Mr. Ive earns his money.

If it does come down to all Samsung guts with Apple design, I'd still happily pay the difference for Mr. Ive's handiwork. I've never seen a Samsung product that I just wanted to hold in my hand.

 

[yellowjacket]

Since I work in the semconductor industry, how this affects manufacturing business is that Portal Player used to have the choice of going to any foundry for manufacturing their device. Now, Samsung has Apple locked in, and no other foundry can get their business. I'm guessing from the stories of how Apple got a huge discount in the past for their Nano memory, etc.from Samsung, they've probably worked this deal out back then.

Also interesting is how Apple's partners, Intel (Mactels), and Samsung (memor for ipods), aren't exactly the best of friends.

Portalplayer unfortunately fell into the "put all my eggs in one basket" problem. But if you think about it, there aren't that many clients out there that require a volume as great as Apple does!

 

[Demon Hunter]

I was thinking about one model in particular, the SGH-D800, that could easily be made into the fabled iPhone, with a slight design modification.

Huh? Isn't that another boring slider phone? Like we need more of those in the States. To be honest I hate the clamshell designs from Samsung, so ugly. Now if they have better-looking devices in Korea...

Samsung alone accounts for 20% of South Korea's economy. They're too damned big.

I wonder what % Apple contributes to our GNP?

The interplay between USA and South Korea, while always interesting, is nothing short of profound in this case...

 

[bloodycape]

Now this is getting interesting... Particularly given that Samsung has the closest thing to an iPod competitor right now. So what are they up to?

I would beg to differ on that one. I would have to say Toshiba, Cowon and Creative are all a little worse, equal to or beter in their own ways the iPod. Samsung may have nice looking players but they are average in sound and interface compared to the ones I listed. However I did have pda with samsung chips and they were exceptional in performance of video and audio. Maybe this means we can see native FLAC, OGG and WAV support.

BTW correctly me if I am wrong but isnt apple using Toshiba HDs?

 

[Lollypop]

I think this is purely a cost cutting measure, one more reason form samsung to give apple a discount and for apple to save money. If they get something like improved battery consumption out of this even better!