Samsung Electronics' chip division will be building the processor inside the first-generation Apple Watch set to launch in March, according to supply chain sources at Digitimes. Using the 28nm process technology, Apple's order to Samsung is said to call for 3,000 to 4,000 12-inch wafers monthly.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry is out with its December Christmas week research, like it does every year, and one thing is extremely evident - Santa loves Apple. The iPhone accounted for 51 percent of new device activations from December 19th to December 25th, putting a pretty good beating on Samsung, who only accounted for 18 percent.
Flurry found that for every one Samsung device that was activated, Apple activated 2.9 devices. For every Microsoft Lumia device activated, Apple activated 8.8 devices. We'll have to wait until Apple's earnings call probably sometime in January for more of a per-device breakdown, but it looks like the iPhone 6 far outweighed any other version of the iPhone.
Re/code is reporting that Samsung is prepping a response to Apple Pay in the form of its own mobile payment solution that doesn't require NFC and should support virtually 100 percent of credit cards and payment terminals.
The service should be announced sometime in 2015 as the South Korean giant is reportedly in talks with the Burlington, Massachusetts based mobile payments startup LoopPay about possibly incorporating their technology into its wireless mobile payment system.
The latest scuttlebutt fresh out of Korea has it that Apple is considering switching to Samsung-made components for the new iPhones and Apple Watch, including iPhone 6 batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI and NAND flash manufactured by Samsung's component making arm.
The story matches up nicely with a BusinessKorea report earlier this month which claimed Apple was considering changing its flash storage provider due to alleged issues with some 128GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units.
Apple and Samsung have struck a major deal, in which Samsung Electronics will supply Apple with the majority of the application processors used in the iPhone and iPad, according to the Korea Times. Apple has reportedly chosen Samsung over TSMC, in a deal worth billions.
Zooming past its biggest rival Samsung, Apple has officially emerged as China's #1 mobile brand in both awareness and loyalty, according to the latest consumer survey conducted by the China Brand Research Center’s.
The research firm's 2014 China Brand Power Index polled a whopping 13,500 Chinese across 30 cities, aged 15 to 60, from August 2013 to January 2014.
According to CNET, Samsung's focus on market share rather than customer satisfaction and loyalty has contributed to its fall from the top spot it had previously held in China since 2012.
The situation for Samsung is a tad grim, as the South Korea-based company reported a 74 percent year-over-year decline in net profit during Q3. This marks Samsung's fourth consecutive quarterly decline, and marks its lowest profit margin since the second quarter of 2011.
Ahead of the scheduled October 31 launch, carriers in South Korea have managed to collect 100,000 pre-orders for Apple's new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones, three times the amount of pre-orders for Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Carriers KT Corp., LG Uplus Corp. and SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, started accepting pre-orders for the new devices this past Friday, October 24.
A pair of videos have surfaced this week offering a good look at real-world multitasking performance of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus relative to competition, while demonstrating the speedy 802.11ac wireless networking Apple's implemented on both devices.
The results suggest that the new iPhones offer nearly three times faster Wi-Fi performance than the iPhone 5s while beating out Samsung's Galaxy S5 and HTC's One M8 handsets in app loading times and task switching.
Echoing previous rumors, Samsung of South Korea confirmed to reporters Thursday that it will start churning out mobile processors for Apple before end of the year, ZDNet reported. The chips, likely to be branded under the “A9” moniker, will be manufactured on Samsung's cutting-edge 14-nanometer process technology.
The confirmation came through the mouth of Kim Ki-nam, president of Samsung's semiconductor-making arm and head of System LSI business.
Speaking to reporters at company headquarters in Seoul, Ki-nam quipped that his company's fortunes “will improve positively” once sales are boosted thanks to the lucrative Apple chip deal. The new mobile processor should make their way into 2015 iPhone and iPad devices.
Samsung Display, Samsung's display unit and part of the company's component-making arm, will supply Apple with high-resolution panels for an upcoming second-generation iPad Air and a rumored “iPad Pro”which is understood to feature a 12.9-inch screen, Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes reported Tuesday morning citing Korean-news outlet inews24.
Although the Cupertino firm’s been distancing itself from the South Korean conglomerate amid ad wars and legal spats, the Galaxy maker is still an important supplier for Apple. And with its leading position in mobile screen production, Samsung is best poised to ensure that Apple has ample supply of high-resolution panels for the iPad Air 2 and the rumored iPad Pro.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt didn't have positive things to say about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus released to much fanfare last week, as you may expect. Schmidt, who is often credited with speaking loosely, had a bold response when a Bloomberg interviewer asked how he felt about people lined up around the block for the new iPhone.