Samsung has recently signed a new deal with Apple to produce chips for the next year's iPhone. The Korean tech company will produce 7nm A12 chips for the Apple handset.
The new deal is a great victory for Samsung after it lost a major deal to the arch rival TSMC in 2013. TSMC is a Taiwanese chip maker company. According to The Investor, the Korean tech giant has recently purchased the most advanced UV lithography machines to produce 7nm processor only for the iPhone.
Reports say one of the three key co-CEOs of Samsung, Kwon Oh-Hyun, played a significant role to strike this important deal with Apple. The deal completed after Kwon Oh-Hyun visited the Cupertino based tech giant's headquarters last month. Close ties between Samsung and Apple regarding the OLED panels could be a significant reason behind this successful deal.
Currently, Samsung is the leading mobile OLED panel maker in the world with a huge 95 percent market share. The Korean tech giant is also the OLED supplier for Apple's upcoming iPhone. Samsung produced chips for Apple before 2013, but TSMC snatched away that place from the said year and became sole iPhone chip maker.
The key reason behind the TSMC's success was the company's ability to unveil the seven-nanometer technology earlier than its rivals in the tech industry. Energy efficiency is the best part of the said technology. Samsung is preparing to conduct the initial tests of the newly purchased machines to avail Apple's final approval to initiate the production of the chips. Last year Phone Arena reported that TSMC and ARM worked together to produce the A10 chipsets for the Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus.
The two companies jointly built a 7nm FinFET chip manufacturing process. Apple used the A9 SoC for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Interestingly, Samsung and TSMC both developed the A9 SoC. The Korean tech giant used the 14nm process, and TSMC used the 16nm process for the A9.
At present TSMC is acquiring the top place in producing chips with a 50.6 percent market share globally. Last year the company earned the revenue of U.S. $28.8 million, followed by the U.S. company Global Foundry with a market share of 9.6 percent. Samsung had 8.1 percent market share in 2016.
