Samsung and TSMC have been fighting tooth and nail, to get the most of Apple’s A9 chip orders. Well, it seems that the battle between the two has finally resolved. As per a report in DigiTimes, Apple has given the manufacturing of its iPad A9 chips to TSMC while that of iPhone A9 chip to Samsung.
If we talk about the combined manufacturing, TSMC has reportedly taken almost 50% of the entire orders. TSMC declined to comment on the matter.
The battle to win away Apple’s chip-manufacturing orders is months old. We had earlier reported that Samsung was struggling to get A9 chip orders, largely due to competitive pricing from TSMC and low-production capapcity of Samsung’s own plants.
While TSMC was successful in taking up the iPad orders, Samsung Electronics on the other hand, were successful in taking away iPhone orders for 2015, largely because of its low-price offering.
As per DigiTimes,
Samsung has offered Apple lower prices for its 14nm FinFET process production, with the quotes similar to those for its 20nm node manufacturing.
Apart from this, TSMC will begin to tape-out 16nm FinFET process products for the next-gen iPhones. The report also noted that though Samsung has taken away the iPhone orders, TSMC will still play a major role as far as the supply chain is concerned.
Though never mentioned explicitly by either Apple or TSMC, the latter reportedly manufactured all of Apple’s A8 chips, embedded in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
