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A Sweetheart Deal: TSMC helps Apple save billions of dollars on iPhone chips
Product of TSMC’s each new manufacturing process first ships to Apple for its products like iPhones and MacBooks. Meanwhile, there’s a sweetheart deal between TSMC and Apple, letting the latter save billions of dollars on iPhone chips.
Apple is the biggest customer of the Taiwanese chip fabrication company. Between both firms, there’s an unbelievable deal in which TSMC effectively eats the cost of the defects that inevitably crop up in a new manufacturing process.
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The US tech giant is preparing to ship new products with chipsets fabricated on TSMC’s 3nm process tech, including A17 Bionic. Report of The Information suggests that Apple places huge chip orders worth billions of dollars, and in return, TSMC eats the cost of defective processor dies.
Chip companies use large silicon wafers to create multiple chips at once, and the wafer is then sliced into many individual processor dies. Many of those dies to end up with defects—either they don’t work at all, or they don’t perform to the specifications of the company that ordered them.
Usually, chip designers would have to pay for each individual die whether it worked or not, but it’s not the same case for Apple. The iPhone maker gives enough orders to the chip manufacturer, making it able to bear the costs of defective dies and chips.
Samsung has reportedly experienced a decrease in smartphone sales in October 2023. In particular, the company’s smartphone sales dipped 8 percent year-over-year, and 2 percent compared to September 2023.
According to Hana Securities (via Revegnus), Samsung smartphone sales slowed down in October 2023 due to the lack of new launches. At the same time, Apple spent a fruitful October due to its recently released iPhone 15 series.
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Despite intensified competition in the mid-range market, the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy A series remained steady. Talking about flagships, the S23 series and Z Flip/Fold 5 sales remained strong compared to their predecessors.
The 9-month sales of the Galaxy S23 reached 25.06 million units (S23 Ultra 11.63 million, S23 Plus 4.52 million, S23 8.91 million), surpassing the S22’s corresponding sales of 20.32 million units by 23%.
Apart from this, the 3-month sales of the Galaxy Z5 series recorded 4.86 million units (Z Flip 5: 3.08 million, Z Fold 5: 1.79 million), a 4% increase over the Z4 series’s 4.68 million units (Z Flip 4: 2.87 million, Z Fold 4: 1.81 million).
Samsung Smartphone Sales in October 2023:
– Experienced an 8% decrease compared to the same month last year and a 2% decrease compared to the previous month.
– Due to the absence of new models that could boost sales.
– However, despite intensified competition in the mid-range… pic.twitter.com/J558ABOk1e— Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) November 28, 2023
With the help of Chinese display maker CSOT, Samsung is indirectly planning to acquire LG Display’s LCD factory in Guangzhou, China. It’s worth mentioning that CSOT is an affiliated company with which Samsung Display holds a 10.38%.
According to the report, market watchers predict that Samsung will support the acquisition as CSOT is an ally. Samsung’s main TV lineup is LCD panel-based QLED TV, and experts believe that this is an effort to maintain a high-quality LCD panel supply chain.
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As the Chinese display manufacturer BOE is mentioned as a competitor for the acquisition of the Guangzhou LCD factory, it is analyzed that the South Korean tech giant is trying to keep it in check by taking over the company through a Chinese company.
The sale of the Guangzhou LCD plant between LG Display and China’s Skyworth, which was carried out until recently, was canceled. After negotiations with Skyworth broke down, Chinese display makers; CSOT and BOE are actively pursuing acquisitions as latecomers.
Given this situation, if BOE takes over LG Display’s Guangzhou LCD factory, it will inevitably be inconvenient for Samsung. Accordingly, it is believed that Samsung is trying to keep BOE in check by supporting CSOT, another acquisition candidate and affiliate.
A new report says that Apple will mass produce the Vision Pro Mixed Reality headset in December this year. The company, which is considered to have “relocated” its industrial chain outside China, is turning to rely again on supply chains in China.
Apple will mass-produce the Vision Pro in December this year, with the first batch of 400,000 units in stock. Around 2024, the sales target is 1 million units, reaching 10 million units in the third year. The proportion of Apple Vision Pro’s mainland supply chain has increased significantly to about 60%.
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Jiemian News reports that the US tech giant has started to communicate with the supply chain about the second and third-generation Vision Pro products, hoping that the cost and price will be further reduced, thereby achieving greater sales.
Vision Pro is Apple’s first-gen mixed reality product released in June this year. This month, the company held its second media experience meeting, and media including CNET and the Wall Street Journal all spoke highly of this product’s “spatial video” and other experiences.