Whether they like it or not, Apple and Samsung are going to be stuck working together for the foreseeable future. According to ZDNet, Kim, Ki-nam, president of Samsung’s semiconductor business, said this week that the company’s profits “will improve positively” once it begins supplying Apple with its new 14-nanometer processors.
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Kim would not reveal a timeframe for the mass production of Samsung’s new chips, but this is the latest confirmation that the Apple-Samsung relationship will continue into the next generation. Earlier this summer, Digitimes reported that Samsung would begin producing the 14-nanometer processors for Apple beginning in early 2015.
Samsung has a lot riding on the success of its new chips — not only has Apple ditched the South Korean vendor as a display provider in favor of LG, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors have been trouncing Samsung’s Exynos chips in the market. Samsung is still the biggest memory chip provider in the world, but major losses this year have given analysts and reporters reason to worry.
The 14-nanometer processors reportedly use 35% less electricity, have 20% more processing power and take up 15% less space than the current 20-nanometer processors. TSMC, one of Samsung’s biggest competitors in the chip business, is expected to produce 16-nanometer processors. This could be the edge Samsung needs to secure a more substantial contract with Apple for the next generation iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
