Samsung is to return to Apple as a supplier of microchips for its new iPhone, in a sign that the bitter patent war between the two firms may be ending. Apple has been cutting manufacturing links with Samsung for over a year after a series of costly patent feuds between the two. Last year, Samsung […]
Samsung is to return to Apple as a supplier of microchips for its new iPhone, in a sign that the bitter patent war between the two firms may be ending.
Apple has been cutting manufacturing links with Samsung for over a year after a series of costly patent feuds between the two.
Last year, Samsung lost out on the contract to supply the central processing chips for the iPhone to Taiwanese firm TSMC.
The South Korean electronics giant firm had provided the key microchips of the iPhone since the launch of the handset in 2007.
The new report in the Korean press this week claims that Samsung has struck a deal with Apple to provide state-of-the-art microchips for the new iPhone from 2015.
The alleged deal follows Samsung’s successful development of a next-generation processing chip ahead of its Taiwanese rival. The Korea Economic Daily said the chips will be used to power the iPhone 7, to be released in late 2015, with no mention of whether Apple’s iPad will also use the technology.
Samsung and Apple have so far declined to comment on the report.
Google and Apple- friends again?
The news follows comments from Google Executive Charman Eric Scmidt, who claimed that the relationship between Google and Apple has improved over the past year with the rival technology companies and sometimes partners conducting “lots and lots” of meetings.
Schmidt did not provide details about the nature of the meetings during comments to reporters at the annual Allen and Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on Thursday.
He noted that Google chief business officer Nikesh Arora, who joined him at the press briefing, was leading many of the discussions.
The two companies are in “constant business discussions on a long list of issues,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt once sat on Apple’s board of directors, but the relationship between the two companies has frayed as competition has increased. Apple created the smartphone market with its iconic iPhone, but Google’s Android mobile software is now featured on three of every four smartphones sold globally.
