General Apple’s approach is that they have two different chipset manufacturers in order to avoid any interruption of supplies. However, it looks that Samsung will not produce A9 and A10 chipsets for new iPhones. We all know that Apple and Samsung compete with each other all the time, but they are also interdependent.
The cooperation between Apple and Samsung is a marriage of convenience.
Apple needs a manufacturer who will be able provide high quality chips on time and Samsung earns a lot of money from the production. However, it looks that this situation will change. Currently, Apple A9 chipset are manufactured by Samsung and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). These integrated circuits are used in iPhone 6s and 6s Plus smartphones. However, there were reports that Apple A9 SoCs manufactured by TSMC are more efficient and generate less heat than the same chips made by Samsung. Also, TSMC has much better progress in the implementation of 10 nm technology.
These two reasons will probably cause that TSMC will became the only manufacturer of Apple A10 chipsets and Samsung will lose a lot of money. However, this can be quite a precedential decision of Apple. Will Apple decide to rely on just one vendor?
