Could this mark the end of Samsung’s legal drama with its biggest business rivals? Probably not, but in the meantime, as all of the cases drag out over who owns what, the South Korean electronics manufacturer figures it might as well make money off its courtroom competitors.
In two separate deals, Samsung has agreed to supply LG Electronics and Apple with advanced DRAM chips for their newest smartphone devices.
While Samsung already made a deal with Apple to supply the company with a majority of its A9 chips for this year’s iPhone 6s and iPad devices, this latest deal now means the company will be providing its biggest rival with two significant components for its iOS devices.
“Under the agreement, Samsung will start providing LG Electronics with 100 percent mobile DRAM chips it needs for LG G4 smartphone, which will be unveiled in April. Also, Samsung will handle at least half of the amount that Apple needs for its new iPhone ― tentatively named iPhone 6S,” an industry official who is familiar with the deal told The Korea Times.
Apple could ask for more than 50% once production is officially underway and they see how well Samsung is able to meet their requests for components.
Worth noting from a production standpoint: Samsung Electronics will also be using in-house mobile DRAM for its new Galaxy S6 models, which are expected to be introduced to market in the next few months.
The agreements come a few months after Samsung, considered to be far and above the world’s largest memory chip supplier, began mass producing its next generation memory chip — an 8-gigabit LPDDR4 mobile DRAM on its 20 nanometer process.
The upgrade for this particular chip is expected to advance the capabilities of today’s smartphones by a significant margin, and give designers more freedom when it comes to incorporating new capabilities.
Specifically, the new DRAM offers twice the density and performance capabilities as compared to its predecessor, the 4-gigabit LPDDR3.
Perhaps most importantly: there’s nothing else like it coming to market; at least, nothing like it that can be mass produced.
“This is really a huge deal. This means Samsung's chip business is booming riding high on its technologies that are far ahead of its rivals,” said Hwang Joon-ho at KDB-Daewoo Securities.
While a senior executive at LG Electronics has confirmed the company will use Samsung’s newest DRAM chips in its G4 smartphone, he noted that the agreement does not signal a thawing in the two company’s relationship, nor an end to their courtroom battles with one another.
It’s not clear how much money Samsung is making, or for how long it’ll provide these parts to its rivals, but early estimates suggest the company will be bringing in billions of dollars with these new deals.
Via Korea Times
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