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Why Samsung must be secretly happy the Apple Watch is a hit

Published May 7th, 2015 8:00PM EDT

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Although the Apple Watch isn’t hitting iPhone 6-level sales numbers, it’s definitely a hit by smartwatch standards. Now a new x-ray teardown conducted by iFixit and Chipworks has revealed that Samsung has a good reason to be happy at the Apple Watch’s success: Samsung apparently supplied Apple with a tiny 28-nanometer that is part of its S1 chipset.

RELATED: New teardown reveals just how incredible the Apple Watch’s S1 chip really is

The fact that Samsung supplied a key component for the Apple Watch isn’t surprising. Even when relations between Apple and Samsung were at their worst, Samsung was still an important component supplier for iPads and other devices. Now that the two companies are no longer in a constant state of litigation against each other, we can expect to see Samsung components in plenty of other Apple products moving forward.

In addition to the Samsung processor, iFixit and Chipworks found that the S1 chipset is packed with “over 30 individual components, attached to a single board that is then overmolded with a silica or aluminum composite resin,” which again shows us what a remarkable piece of engineering it is.

Check out more observations about the insides of the S1 chipset by clicking here.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.