Apple may be the company taking most of the legal action against Samsung, but it looks as though Samsung is the one making business decisions to move away from supplying Apple.
Back in October, Samsung terminated its LCD contract with Apple. That was significant because Samsung is Apple’s largest supplier of displays, shipping tens of millions to the company every year. Now, the contract termination seems to be extending, as Samsung has stopped supplying Apple with batteries for the iPad and MacBook laptops.
The details are limited, but it seems Samsung stopped the supply rather than Apple initiating this. Apple has now called upon other manufacturing partners, including Amperex Technology Limited and Tianjin Lishen Battery, to make up the difference–a difference that must account for millions of batteries.
There was also a rumor, and one some in Samsung has denied, that it had raised Apple chip production prices 20 percent. But whether that is true or not, it is very clear that both Apple and Samsung are breaking away from each other as the lawsuits continue.
Who does this hurt more? I’d say Apple. Samsung will obviously miss the revenue gained from large Apple orders, but you could argue it no longer needs them due to the growing success of the company’s Galaxy range of devices. There’s also not going to be a shortage of other brand devices needing displays, batteries, and chips manufactured.
Apple on the other hand needs to secure availability of its very popular devices to avoid a shortage and missed sales opportunities. And Samsung was capable of meeting most of that demand. The supply chain for Apple is weaker without having them as a supplier in the short term at least.
BrightWire, via AppAdvice
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