Comments on: Apple’s Custom iPhone Chips Would Hurt Samsung

By: DailyWireless » Blog Archive » Wednesday Links: In-Flight VoIP Ban, iPhone Processors

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:11:04 +0000

[...] Apple may begin making their own custom iPhone processor chips, now that they’ve bought a chip manufacturer. Experts say if that will happen, it will hurt Samsung, who also makes chips for their low-power phones. Read on Gigaom. [...]

By: Michael Teuber

Michael Teuber — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:12:35 +0000

Eric, as the impact, if any, would not be felt for some time, it is not the 10 million iPhones already sold, or the 45 million iPhones in production for the next 12 months, but the iPhones sold in the 2010 fiscal year that would be involved.

As to how Samsung would be affected, if, as you say, nobody has Samsung's numbers then we don't really know how this will affect them. However working from the 'more business is better than less' premise, it would not be a good thing anyway.

Samsung has no problem selling iPhone-alike Instincts which may 'hurt' Apple just as much as custom ARM chips 'hurt' Samsung.

By: Eric in Cupertino

Eric in Cupertino — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:30:55 +0000

I was under the impression ARM is the most common CPU currently. Yes?

Do 10 million ARM CPUs in iPhones really mean anything compared to a volume of billions?

Nobody has Samsung's numbers so we can all dream up random ideas? What sort of impact would this have on Samsung?

I think whatever CPUs Samsung uses on American CDMA devices is meaningless. What's the volume of Samsung's ARM CPUs in GSM devices in Asia? What devices are China Mobile and Vodafone selling which use Samsung ARM chips?

By: Constable Odo

Constable Odo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:27:59 +0000

Plus, Samsung will soon be acquiring SanDisk, so Samsung should definitely have it’s hands full and not need to worry about what little business they lose from Apple. With the Android Platform coming out soon, they’ll get more business from other handset manufacturers. No need to cry over Samsung.

By: Wes Felter

Wes Felter — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:51:49 +0000

Some people speculate that Samsung will manufacture the iPhone chips designed by Apple; this isn’t as profitable as designing the chips themselves, but they’re still getting some business. Samsung can also make money on the DRAM and flash in iPhones, which make up a significant fraction of the cost.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/04/30/apples_bionic_arm_to_muscle_advanced_gaming_graphics_into_iphones.html

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:05:11 +0000

This may hurt their ARM product line, but given the size and diversity of Samsung’s business, I agree, this will “sting” Samsung like a mosquito bite.