DailyTech - Report: Apple Slashes iPhone Memory Orders from Samsung

Submit News

Gadgets Report: Apple Slashes iPhone Memory Orders from Samsung
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - September 7, 2012 9:08 AM

39 comment(s) - last by JKarma.. on Sep 11 at 2:33 PM

Apple seeks memory chip diversity says source

It's always been interesting that fierce rivals in the smartphone market often buy components from each other. One instance is Apple, which typically purchases memory chips from one of its main rivals, Samsung Electronics. What's even more interesting about Apple purchasing components from Samsung is that the two companies have been embroiled in one of the nastiest patent suits in the technology world.

Now sources are claiming that Apple has reduced orders for memory chips for the new iPhone from Samsung Electronics according to Reuters. Samsung has been a core Apple supplier producing microprocessors, displays, and memory chips used in various Apple products. Products that use Samsung components include the iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

According to the source, Samsung is providing some hardware for the new iPhone, but Apple has been cutting back its orders with Samsung and seeking to diversify supply lines. The Korea Economic Daily had previously cited an unnamed source within the industry claiming that Apple had dropped Samsung from the list of memory chip suppliers for the first batch of new iPhone models. Apple has turned to companies like OCZ Technology and Elpida in the wake of the Samsung snub.

The new iPhone will be unveiled on Wednesday, September 12.

"Samsung is still on the list of initial memory chip suppliers (for new iPhones). But Apple orders have been trending down and Samsung is making up for the reduced order from others, notably Samsung's handset business," the source told Reuters.

Samsung's line of Galaxy smartphones, particularly the new Galaxy S III, is some of the iPhone's fiercest rivals for smartphone market share. Samsung recently announced that it had sold 20 million S III units since it debuted in late May.

Sources: Reuters, Seeking Alpha

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Bound to happen.

By dark matter on 9/7/2012 9:19:50 AM , Rating: 5

The courtroom battle isn't over.

Neither is the war.

I expect things to get even dirtier from here on in.

Still makes me laugh though, they're just phones.

Crazy world.

RE: Bound to happen.

By xti on 9/7/2012 9:27:47 AM , Rating: 3

this just in...i got my coffee from MCD. Starbucks gave me the finger. movie at 11.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By Dr of crap on 9/7/2012 10:09:13 AM , Rating: 2

JUST PHONES !!!!!

You do read the articles and posts on here, right???
I posted about the same many times on here,
only to be blasted as someone that doesn't know anything or is not "connected enough".

I do agree with you 100% - they're just phones!

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By StevoLincolnite on 9/7/2012 10:15:11 AM , Rating: 3

Except these days, they're more than just a phone.

They are a Camera/Video Camera, games device, MP3/Video player, Internet access machine, modem via tethering etc' etc'.

So more than just a phone, more like a portable ultra-low powered computer with Telephone capabilities.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By FITCamaro on 9/7/2012 10:46:06 AM , Rating: 5

#firstworldproblems

It is utterly pathetic that people care more about what phone they have than they do about knowing how their government is supposed to work.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By retrospooty on 9/7/2012 10:56:56 AM , Rating: 5

I am pretty sure the government is supposed to take a portion of all of our money and waste it with total ineptness and gross inefficiency ... no ?

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By geddarkstorm on 9/7/2012 11:20:13 AM , Rating: 2

Wait... I thought the government was supposed to take our money and use it to buy phones for everyone... right?

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By retrospooty on 9/7/2012 11:25:04 AM , Rating: 2

No, if that were the case tehy would spend 80% of the money for the program on creating and managing a new bureaucracy to run the phone program and then the 20% left would be buying an overpriced underperforming phone. It would then go way overbudget and get triple the budget next year to accommodate.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By Natch on 9/7/2012 1:41:12 PM , Rating: 2

Would that be a phonetitlement??

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By Samus on 9/8/2012 2:35:14 AM , Rating: 2

TRUTH. They are just phones. And although phones seem important now, anybody who thinks we'll be holding stuff up to our ears or pecking away on a touch screen in the next decade truely lacks vision. Biometric technology is going to completely free our hands and eyes of anything 'physical' sooner than you think.

Look how fast the phone has already evolved. Give it another 10 years and you can only imagine how crazy it will get. Johnny Mnemonic, meet Samsung.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By Shadowself on 9/7/2012 12:08:42 PM , Rating: 5

I know how the U.S. Government is *supposed* to work. However, I also know it has not actually worked that way since 1793. I also know that it has gotten worse since the 1950s no matter which party was/is in charge.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By room200 on 9/8/2012 11:06:04 PM , Rating: 4

More pathetic how you @ssholes come to a technology website and complain that people aren't talking politics.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By BifurcatedBoat on 9/7/2012 7:57:32 PM , Rating: 2

The phone functionality is really just a small part of what they do. They're pocket PCs. Problem is, they would never have gotten traction with the general public if they were marketed as such.

Marketing it as a phone "that can do other stuff" was a much easier sell, particularly since getting a better/cooler phone had already become generally acceptable.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By crimson117 on 9/7/2012 12:56:24 PM , Rating: 3

You could say the same thing about Oil - it's just petroleum.

They may be just phones, but they are also a multi-billion dollar market.

Parent

RE: Bound to happen.

By someguy123 on 9/7/2012 5:27:09 PM , Rating: 4

It's pretty much all about the money. Apple has a small amount of products that produce gigantic revenue and samsung is encroaching with their android phones. if the iphone/ipad were ever marginalized apple would basically collapse.

Parent

Samsung vs. OCZ

By jwcalla on 9/7/2012 12:46:24 PM , Rating: 2

Apple is dropping Samsung, which is the premier flash producer, and replacing them with OCZ, which is bottom-of-the-barrel in just about everything.

Then they're charging a premium on their products for being of the highest quality.

This doesn't make sense.

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By Tony Swash on 9/7/12, Rating: -1

By Tony Swash on 9/7/2012 1:55:08 PM , Rating: -1

quote:
This doesn't make sense.

It does if you add a missing piece of the puzzle. Which is Anobit. Apple purchased Anobit, a maker of flash storage technology, for $500m in December 2011. That's big hardware purchase for Apple.

At the time of the acquisition ZDnet's, Robin Haris – who had previously spoken to Anobit's chief executive Avraham Meir – said the company has developed systems which improve the stability of flash memory.

"Anobit designs controller chips that make flash behave", Harris wrote. It adds reliability, accuracy, endurance and power consumption improvements to standard flash systems through its proprietary controller chip.

Calling the Anobit acquisition "Apple's biggest hardware bet ever – and it is a good bet", Harris said it would give Apple "a powerful competitive weapon that can be used to both reduce costs and/or increase performance, while increasing product quality in terms of reliability and battery life".

Part of Apple's long term strategy in relation to the current portfolio of iDevices, as it was with the iPod, is to wage a war against their competitors inside the world's tech supply chain. Through scale of purchases, through strategic investments in supplier production, through unique component design, Apple wants to create a situation where it's competitors simply cannot create equivalent products and still make a profit (Apple's price advantage though the domination of unibody technology supply is a good example).

I have been waiting for the results of the Anobit acquisition to emerge, it looks like they might be about to. For more see:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2012/0507/global-2000...

http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/27/the-tipping-hand-...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/20/a...

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By retrospooty on 9/7/2012 3:46:44 PM , Rating: 2

Oh Apple, Apple. Where for art though Apple. What backlight through yonder window (screen) breaks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFhjDX-DUew

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By anactoraaron on 9/7/2012 3:52:57 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
At the time of the acquisition ZDnet's, Robin Haris – who had previously spoken to Anobit's chief executive Avraham Meir – said the company has developed systems which improve the stability of flash memory.

So they are putting a pretty bow on a pig then?

quote:
"Anobit designs controller chips that make flash behave", Harris wrote.

And they know that the flash they make has a tendency to 'misbehave' since they need controller chips to make it behave.

Guess holding it wrong may be the least of future iPhone buyers' problems... Using it wrong will be the next quote from Apple

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By Tony Swash on 9/7/12, Rating: -1

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By anactoraaron on 9/7/2012 9:25:35 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not so sure. Anobit is short on patents (currently 24) and I don't know of any of their products in any actual device (until apple starts using them, er rather themseleves). Not to say no good tech can come out of Israel as I'm sure it can, but it seems like tech leaders are in asian countries.

quote:
Apple wants to make distinctive, faster, more reliable, cheaper flash memory that will use less power than the sort of common flash memory available to other device makers.

You can't have cheap and reliable nand. This is common knowledge for someone posting on a tech site. Cheaper means less reliable and even paired with an aggressive wear leveling controller you are required to make additional (more than normal) spare area to account for defective nand. How fast the nand is mainly comes down to the controller and firmware optimization. Which takes years to develop... I doubt any of the 24 patents anobit has (and now apple has) are related to firmware for their flash controller that I can't seem to find any information on... Not to mention they have only been around since 2006.

But like you say maybe we should just wait and see. But you know you will be hearing it should this project fail (like you have something to do with it).

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By Aries1470 on 9/9/2012 11:45:07 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I'm not so sure. Anobit is short on patents (currently 24) and I don't know of any of their products in any actual device (until apple starts using them, er rather themseleves). Not to say no good tech can come out of Israel as I'm sure it can, but it seems like tech leaders are in asian countries.

Well... if you have been in the I.T. / C.P.U., you will actually be amazed that plenty of the optimisations and updates to the Pentiums & Intel Core 2 etc, were researched and came out of Intel's Israel office's.

As for Asia, it is mostly manufacturing, and also development that was pushed mostly by Japan in the past. Now China is playing catch-up and the other countries like Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia etc are left way behind in R&D and are mostly used for production.

There, I hope that has been informative for you.

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By Freakie on 9/8/2012 10:46:26 PM , Rating: 2

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. The memory in all devices follows specifications, and it needs to in order for all the other parts in a device to work in harmony. If Apple were to have someone have their subsidiary (remember, this is NOT Apple that is doing anything to the Flash Memory, it's a company they own that operates under their own name, Apple doesn't have the engineers at Apple to do something like that) design something out of spec, then that would require major (and expensive) changes to the other parts in the phone that they would then have to pay their suppliers to specially design (which also takes time). Apple wont be doing anything that is particularly faster, nor will the memory its self be more reliable, and it most definitely wont be lower power (that would require out of spec designing).

Also... OCZ doesn't make NAND o_O Not sure why it is even mentioned in this article as OCZ has nothing to do with anything that isn't OCZ... they just build drives using things like Samsung NAND =P

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By menting on 9/7/2012 4:44:00 PM , Rating: 3

no, the article seems to be misleading and mistaken. OCZ is competing for the same NAND parts that Apple wants. OCZ themselves do not make any NAND. The link only shows that OCZ is taking a hit because they can not buy any cheap NAND due to Apple gobbling it up all.

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By Freakie on 9/8/2012 10:48:58 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah I'm concerned about that part too. It's obviously mistaken since OCZ is incapable of supplying Apple with any NAND at all since they don't make the stuff, even though they are trying to say that Apple is switching from Samsung to other "suppliers" like OCZ and Elpida. Maybe the author is confused xP

Parent

RE: Samsung vs. OCZ

By drycrust3 on 9/7/2012 6:48:52 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
and replacing them with OCZ, which is bottom-of-the-barrel in just about everything.

Well, maybe Apple aren't so fussed about quality these days.

Parent

Scew

By p05esto on 9/7/2012 3:03:19 PM , Rating: 4

Down with Apple, I can't stand that company. Over my dead body will I ever purchase one of their overpriced and DRM, closed standard pieces of crap. Only sheep and clueless tech wannabes buy Apple. No one who really knows what they are doing would buy an ipod, ipad or any kind of Mac computer....

RE: Scew

By Tony Swash on 9/7/12, Rating: -1

RE: Scew

By retrospooty on 9/7/2012 3:51:09 PM , Rating: 2

Yes, it must be unhealthy to have such strong feelings about a company right ;)

Parent

RE: Scew

By Tony Swash on 9/8/12, Rating: -1

RE: Scew

By Fleeb on 9/10/2012 10:46:47 AM , Rating: 1

That is what I like about Apple too! It is so successful that it was even able to call a tap a zero-length swipe much as a stand a zero-distance walk! Who else could do that making travelling serene just by standing? Only Apple can.

Parent

RE: Scew

By JKarma on 9/11/2012 2:33:13 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
It makes for a very serene life :)

Yeah, so does a lobotomy.

Parent

Apple LOL

By retrospooty on 9/7/2012 10:38:06 AM , Rating: 5

I really hope Apple hasn't started a war they cant finish...

http://www.androidauthority.com/apple-htc-lte-pate...

Now we have 2 different Android makers that will be suing Apple for 4G LTE in retaliation for Apple's suits. =)

These suits suck just as much, but Apple did start it. Really petty considering Apple is more than capable of competing and putting out good product.

By sprockkets on 9/7/2012 11:22:28 AM , Rating: 3

Their loss. Samsung makes the best ram.

RE: .

By AMDftw on 9/7/2012 11:51:19 AM , Rating: 2

Samsung should just not sell to them... Let "crApple" buy from someone else. End up in court again anyways.

Parent

Not shocking

By Colin1497 on 9/7/2012 12:13:03 PM , Rating: 2

RAM and Flash are the easiest thing for Samsung to source elsewhere. The writing is on the wall, Samsung would be wise to use any leverage they have while it still exists.

RE: Not shocking

By Colin1497 on 9/7/2012 12:13:38 PM , Rating: 2

*apple

Parent

where does it say they are turning to OCZ

By menting on 9/7/2012 4:38:29 PM , Rating: 2

I see nowhere that they are turning to OCZ, which itself is not a NAND manufacturer.
I only see that they are buying up the supplies that OCZ uses in their products.