Apple and Samsung Are Friendly Again, and the Competition Should Be Terrified

[Achtung!]

The iPhone 6s is being released soon, in about 4 months time in September, and Apple will be depending on the iPhone 6s for its success in 2015/2016. If the iPhone 6s fails to surpass the iPhone 6 in terms of sales, expect Apple's shares to nosedive. However, fortunately for Apple, this is unlikely to happen.

Apple will most likely have a huge marketing plan for the iPhone 6s. Sales WILL most likely surpass the iPhone 6 because of Apple's huge pile of cash, making it the largest marketing machine in the world.

The alliance of the world's 2 largest technology companies is starting again. After the 2012 litigation battle between Samsung and Apple, things got friendlier. Now, things are getting more intimate as Apple is fully moving to Samsung for manufacturing its displays, memory and chips for the next iPhone most likely due to Samsung's higher technological level and capacity compared to TSMC. Whether the next iPhone will have a Super AMOLED display is unknown, but Samsung Display already has a special team that is doing R&D for the displays of Apple's next iPhone.
TSMC, on the other hand, expects its revenues and profits to decline in 2015/2016. TSMC's lower technological level and capacity is obviously showing its limitations.

If the iPhone 6s gets a Super AMOLED display, this will be HUGE. The Galaxy S6's display is already the best in the industry, Apple fans will admit this in envy. If the iPhone 6s gets it, expect every Apple fan to buy the iPhone 6s.

Furthermore, the iPhone 6s most likely will have a 1080p+ display, 14nm CPU, possibly DDR4 RAM and possibly UFS flash memory. The iPhone 6s will also have next-gen force touch integration.

The iPhone 6 was only a form factor upgrade with a minor spec bump over the iPhone 5s.

The iPhone 6s will be the major hardware upgrade over the iPhone 6.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...again-and-the-competition-should-be-terrified

Apple and Samsung Are Friendly Again, and the Competition Should Be Terrified

The technology industry’s greatest rivalry may be turning into an unstoppable collaboration. Relations between Apple and Samsung Electronics appear to be thawing since the war waged by Steve Jobs forced these onetime corporate comrades to end lucrative supply contracts and engage in costly legal battles. In August 2014, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook agreed to begin winding down the patent suits with Samsung, and the two companies are teaming up again on new products.

Samsung will manufacture the main chip for the next iPhone, as well as displays for other Apple products, and it is budgeting $14 billion for new plants and equipment that are expected to accommodate, among other things, its big new client. From this alliance, Apple gets access to one of the biggest, most sophisticated chip manufacturing operations in the world to help it continue outselling the competition. Samsung gets crucial new orders for its core chipmaking group to make up for stagnating profit in mobile phones. Just about all other companies in the industry will suffer, starting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and SanDisk.

On April 29, Samsung reported first-quarter earnings showing growth in every one of its component businesses. Meanwhile, TSMC, which made the main chip for previous versions of the iPhone, cut its spending plans.

“Samsung has come back with a vengeance into the chip market,” says Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “When you look at all the capacity they’re going to put online, it’s an amazing amount of money that they’re investing.”

Another likely loser from an Apple-Samsung love affair is SanDisk. The company, which makes memory chips for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, released a forecast on April 15 that fell short of analyst estimates. SanDisk cited lower prices, product delays, and the loss of customers. Apple is believed to be one of those customers, having turned to Samsung for the flash drives used in many newer Mac models, according to analysts. “Playing against Samsung is never easy,” says Daniel Amir, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann. “They took away SanDisk’s business at Apple.”

Apple was SanDisk’s biggest customer by far, contributing 19 percent of the chipmaker’s revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. SanDisk’s dependence on Apple and the ensuing fallout could make it a canary in the manufacturing plant for companies in the industry that have similar relationships with the tech giant from Cupertino, Calif. Micron Technology, SK Hynix, AU Optronics, and TSMC all count Apple among their top three clients, and each competes directly with Samsung in their respective markets.

Even as it’s expected to manufacture chips for Apple, Samsung continues to make smartphones of its own. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, released on April 10, are receiving favorable reviews. But the company has every reason to refocus on its roots as a chipmaker. As recently as June 2014, Samsung’s mobile phone division was providing more than 60 percent of the company’s operating profit. That slipped to 37 percent by the end of last year, with the semiconductor division picking up the slack to account for more than half.

While Samsung has been losing market share to Apple in high-end smartphones, the South Korean company remained the world’s largest consumer of electronic components at the end of 2014. Apple was second. The two account for 17 percent of worldwide chip purchases, according to research firm Gartner. And they make up 40 percent of the smartphone market by units, according to researcher IDC. In other words, you can’t avoid them.

As if the prospect of losing Apple’s business weren’t enough, chipmakers have to worry about Samsung building more of the components for its own devices in-house. The latest Galaxy phones use Samsung-made processors, storage chips, modems, and image processors, whereas previous models farmed out some of the work to other companies. Samsung had long promised not to favor its own components if it could get a better deal elsewhere. That no longer seems to be the case.

After Apple, SanDisk’s biggest customer is Samsung, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Qualcomm, the world’s largest designer of phone chips and maker of the iPhone’s cellular modem, counts Samsung and Apple among its biggest customers. Samsung ditched Qualcomm components for its Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, and the chipmaker says Samsung will also forgo its processors in the next Galaxy Note phones.

Qualcomm Chairman Paul Jacobs may have a strategy to reclaim lost business. The company failed to win the Galaxy orders partly because its chips were made using a slightly older manufacturing process at TSMC factories, which limited improvements to performance and battery life. When asked on April 28 what it could do to lure Samsung back, Jacobs suggested Qualcomm might be moving its production to the Korean company’s superior factories.

Although Samsung’s newest phones don’t use Qualcomm chips, perhaps Jacobs and his colleagues should root for the products to succeed. If Samsung again proves a threat to Apple in smartphones, Cook may be less keen to look past the rivalry.

 

[Graze]

The iPhone 6s is being released soon, in about 4 months time in September, and Apple will be depending on the iPhone 6s for its success in 2015/2016. If the iPhone 6s fails to surpass the iPhone 6 in terms of sales, expect Apple's shares to nosedive. However, fortunately for Apple, this is unlikely to happen.

Apple will most likely have a huge marketing plan for the iPhone 6s. Sales WILL most likely surpass the iPhone 6 because of Apple's huge pile of cash, making it the largest marketing machine in the world.

Yeah I dont see the iphone6s outselling the iphone6! The iphone 6 sold like it did because was a real update to the iphone, one that people were wanting for a while(no matter the bullshit that some apple people tell you) .

Shareholders know this too. After Apple released this quarter's results even though they were good and beat estimates the stock took a shit. You know why? Because they are worried that apple has only the iphone going for it and that in the coming quarters people would not very upgrading their iphones after just getting an iphone6.

 

[Achtung!]

Yeah I dont see the iphone6s outselling the iphone6! The iphone 6 sold like it did because was a real update to the iphone, one that people were wanting for a while(no matter the bullshit that some apple people tell you) .

Shareholders know this too. After Apple released this quarter's results even though they were good and beat estimates the stock took a shit. You know why? Because they are worried that apple has only the iphone going for it and that in the coming quarters people would not very upgrading their iphones after just getting an iphone6.

However not everyone got the iPhone 6 (it was mostly iPhone 5 users and some from Android). And iPhone 6 sales slowed down significantly this year.

And remember, there are still millions of people using the iPhone 5s and there are likely to be millions of people still using the iPhone 5 or older versions of the iPhone.

So I still expect the iPhone 6s sales to surpass the iPhone 6.

 

[touchstone]

I thought it was a well known fact that iphone sales are not as high on the 'S' years because the update all on internals?




Samsung is not going to let Apple get a better display on the 6s than the Galaxy S6 or Note 5. Probably equal to the S6 at best.


Their chip won't be as good, because um... 8 cores? I just don't see Apple making a phone that destroys their own iPad Air 2 tablet in speed, which is what they would have to do to beat the S6.


So, while I think the iphone 6s will be a success, I do not believe it will outsell the iphone 6 or outperform the Galaxy S6. I'm sure it will make HTC and LG look awful but Samsung is a cut above those to manufacturers.


My expectations for the iphone 6s are: Force touch. 4.7" retina+ AMOLED Display, tri-core 14nm A9 processor, DDR4, UFS, Dual-lens camera... and on the unlikely side of things a sapphire display or quad core processor.

 

[Lyfer]

I hope because of this we come one step closer to Aaron Hernandez's innocence!

 

[bonkers325]

I don't think Apple will give up the Retina moniker and switch to a screen that is being used by a rival flagship.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Does anyone see an internals refresh on the smaller form factors coming? It's not for me but I think eventually the GF is going to want to upgrade her 5s but does not want a larger form factor, just faster processing, improved battery life, etc.

 

[touchstone]

Does anyone see an internals refresh on the smaller form factors coming? It's not for me but I think eventually the GF is going to want to upgrade her 5s but does not want a larger form factor, just faster processing, improved battery life, etc.

There will be a 4" 'iPhone 6C' that will be basically iphone 6 internals with plastic outer shell. Much like the 5C is iphone 5 internals with a plastic outer shell.



So that would be an upgrade from a 5s in terms of specs and speed, but lower quality materials.

 

[Achtung!]

I thought it was a well known fact that iphone sales are not as high on the 'S' years because the update all on internals?




Samsung is not going to let Apple get a better display on the 6s than the Galaxy S6 or Note 5. Probably equal to the S6 at best.


Their chip won't be as good, because um... 8 cores? I just don't see Apple making a phone that destroys their own iPad Air 2 tablet in speed, which is what they would have to do to beat the S6.


So, while I think the iphone 6s will be a success, I do not believe it will outsell the iphone 6 or outperform the Galaxy S6. I'm sure it will make HTC and LG look awful but Samsung is a cut above those to manufacturers.


My expectations for the iphone 6s are: Force touch. 4.7" retina+ AMOLED Display, tri-core 14nm A9 processor, DDR4, UFS, Dual-lens camera... and on the unlikely side of things a sapphire display or quad core processor.

Successive iPhone launches have always outsold the previous iterations.

This is why I think the iPhone 6s will outsell the iPhone 6.

I don't think Apple will give up the Retina moniker and switch to a screen that is being used by a rival flagship.

They already have with the iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[touchstone]

Successive iPhone launches have always outsold the previous iterations.

This is why I think the iPhone 6s will outsell the iPhone 6.

I must've remembered the graph I saw wrong. Well, if they did it last time then I expect them to do it again. So I revise my prediction to the 6s outselling the 6 marginally.

 

[mrochester]

I don't really care what hardware ends up inside a device. All I care about is the user experience at the other end. Why do people get so hung up on specs?

 

[QueBert]

I don't really care what hardware ends up inside a device. All I care about is the user experience at the other end. Why do people get so hung up on specs?

From the people I've come across, only Android fans really get caught up in specs. Most iPhone 6 owners I know are perfectly happy with only having an 8mp camera. Android doesn't give you the same user experience, so they rely on bringing up quad core and specs that ultimately are either overkill or useless. I own an iPhone and a M7 and specs wise the M7 is probably better. But I don't find it anywhere close to as good to use as my iP6+. Specs mean very little to me as even the lower end phones out now are plenty good spec wise. I don't ever see a day in the future where I'd care if my phone has a 4k screen phone with 8 cores, just dumb if you ask me.

 

[ControlD]

From the people I've come across, only Android fans really get caught up in specs. Most iPhone 6 owners I know are perfectly happy with only having an 8mp camera. Android doesn't give you the same user experience, so they rely on bringing up quad core and specs that ultimately are either overkill or useless. I own an iPhone and a M7 and specs wise the M7 is probably better. But I don't find it anywhere close to as good to use as my iP6+. Specs mean very little to me as even the lower end phones out now are plenty good spec wise. I don't ever see a day in the future where I'd care if my phone has a 4k screen phone with 8 cores, just dumb if you ask me.

Well, there really isn't any point getting caught up in specs when it comes to the iPhone is there? You get one choice unless you are bargain shopping old devices (two I guess if you look at screen size). I think part of the reason people start throwing lots of specs and benchmarks around when it comes to Android is simply because there are so many models and configurations to look at. For tech geeks these are interesting things to look at.

 

[dawheat]

From the people I've come across, only Android fans really get caught up in specs. Most iPhone 6 owners I know are perfectly happy with only having an 8mp camera. Android doesn't give you the same user experience, so they rely on bringing up quad core and specs that ultimately are either overkill or useless. I own an iPhone and a M7 and specs wise the M7 is probably better. But I don't find it anywhere close to as good to use as my iP6+. Specs mean very little to me as even the lower end phones out now are plenty good spec wise. I don't ever see a day in the future where I'd care if my phone has a 4k screen phone with 8 cores, just dumb if you ask me.

Meh I find these dismissive comments just as annoying as Android fanatics. While less spec conscious, the above believes no less that they have a superior product. It's just worded differently and no less smugly.

For example - quad core is brought up dismissively while either not knowing or ignoring that the Cyclone cores are nearly 2X the size of the current Android CPU cores. This is a different design decision - and when done right (Exynos 7420 and A8), both are equal ways to handle mobile computing.

Apple has always had top notch hardware in their phones (exception being their persisting 1GB RAM nonsense). To pretend otherwise and believe that it's some magical other sauce that makes their phones great is ridiculous. Android fans might get excited about some slide showing 8 cores, Apple fans get excited about some slide showing 10X faster than 3 years ago.

At the end of the day, things always end up converging. See the S6 and iPhone 6 - regardless of their differing approaches to SOCs and cameras, the experience ends up being equally good.

 

[mrochester]

Well, there really isn't any point getting caught up in specs when it comes to the iPhone is there? You get one choice unless you are bargain shopping old devices (two I guess if you look at screen size). I think part of the reason people start throwing lots of specs and benchmarks around when it comes to Android is simply because there are so many models and configurations to look at. For tech geeks these are interesting things to look at.

I'm a tech geek and I don't care about the specs. I care what it does for me and how it does it.

 

[Artdeco]

With manufacturers releasing phones months apart, there are always spec bumps and differences, they're not massive differences, but sure make for benchmark & forum drama.

Of course X is better, I love the reviews, "it's the best phone they've made". Well of course, newer, faster processors, gpu's etc... It gets silly after a point.

We're getting to where midrange phones are now pretty decent. Another couple of years, and flagships really won't matter except to spec whores...

 

[Mopetar]

Samsung is not going to let Apple get a better display on the 6s than the Galaxy S6 or Note 5. Probably equal to the S6 at best.

Samsung's profits have been dropping a good bit recently. If Apple were willing to pay the price, Samsung would jump on the opportunity in a hurry. Any investment in their business from Apple means its less business their competitors are getting.

If Samsung really didn't like Apple they wouldn't fab their SoCs or sell them memory either, but they're obviously fine with those. Apple either doesn't want Samsung's display or Samsung doesn't have the capacity to manufacture for both Apple and themselves and so they can't commit to Apple.

But if they had some promising new technology and Apple was willing to dump billions up front for exclusivity, Samsung would take it. They already have good displays otherwise and they get another company to foot the bill for refining a manufacturing process that will eventually benefit them as well.

If Samsung can be the best component manufacturer, they don't even need to sell phones. Sony doesn't make any money from their Android phones, but they still make lots of money on phones because they make some of the best camera components on the market.

 

[Eug]

1. I suspect the 6s will have the exact same screen resolution as the 6.
2. I suspect the 6s plus will have the exact same screen resolution as the 6 plus.
3. DDR4 falls into the nobody gives a frack category. What's much, much, much important is that it will get 2 GB RAM, instead of the 1 GB RAM it has now. This represents a real upgrade.

BTW, I like 4" iPhone screens. Best for one-handed use with my small hands. I also have a 5s, so I'm not 100% sure I'd upgrade to the 6s, even though I thought I would.

Normally I get the phone upgrade, and then I hand down my old phone to my wife, but my wife is strictly a two handed phone user, and lately she's been asking to get an iPad mini. Actually last week she tried using her iPhone 5 one-handed (while holding our baby in her other arm), and she dropped the phone and cracked the plastic part of the shell. Cost me $100 plus tax to get the shell replaced.

So right now I'm debating whether or not to just get her a 6s plus, and see if she still wants the iPad mini after that, or whether I should get her the 6s plus and get a 6s for myself. The 1 GB RAM on my iPhone 5s is a bit annoying, although not a total deal killer, and getting two top-of-the-line unlocked off-contract phones is quite a bit of coin all at once. Yeah we can afford it no problem, but somehow it seems wasteful, esp. since my 5s (and her 5) both work perfectly fine.

 

[JAG87]

Those who think the 6s is going to sell less than the 6, you are delusional.

Apple has built the best customer retention model ever made in human history, and because of the way it works, sales of the new model will always surpass those of the previous.

The wave of people who upgraded to the 6 are going to be all those on 2-year terms to bought the 5, or still owned older devices such as the 4s or 4, plus first timers.

The wave of people who are going to buy the 6s are those on 2 year terms who bought the 5s (which outsold the 5), or still own older devices such as the 5 (which outsold the 4s) or the 4s (which outsold the 4), plus first timers.

So you see, it's a never-ending growing cycle, because hardly anybody ever leaves the iOS ecosystem once they invest into it, but mainly because it provides a consistent user experience across any Apple device.

It doesn't even matter what the new device brings to the table. Apple has very carefully planned device obsolescence in terms of software features, software performance, and battery service life, to ensure that the customer will not want to use their 2 year old device for another year.

By the way, all of this comes from an 8 year iPhone user, so don't think it's biased.

 

[Eug]

Apple has built the best customer retention model ever made in human history, and because of the way it works, sales of the new model will always surpass those of the previous.

iPad

 

[yhelothar]

I thought it was a well known fact that iphone sales are not as high on the 'S' years because the update all on internals?




Samsung is not going to let Apple get a better display on the 6s than the Galaxy S6 or Note 5. Probably equal to the S6 at best.


Their chip won't be as good, because um... 8 cores? I just don't see Apple making a phone that destroys their own iPad Air 2 tablet in speed, which is what they would have to do to beat the S6.


So, while I think the iphone 6s will be a success, I do not believe it will outsell the iphone 6 or outperform the Galaxy S6. I'm sure it will make HTC and LG look awful but Samsung is a cut above those to manufacturers.


My expectations for the iphone 6s are: Force touch. 4.7" retina+ AMOLED Display, tri-core 14nm A9 processor, DDR4, UFS, Dual-lens camera... and on the unlikely side of things a sapphire display or quad core processor.

I'm curious, what do all these technological advancements bring over a phone two, three generations ago? My HTC One M7 has a perfectly sharp retina display where the pixels are completely imperceptible, it's plenty fast for any apps I throw at it. The camera is probably better on the iphone by a good margin. I'd imagine the battery life would be better given it's on a 14nm process. But aside from those two things, what really is going to be much improved in terms of experience? Have we reached the point where phones have become fast enough? Why does anyone need an 8 core CPU in their phone? You can't even multitask on a phone. It looks like phones have even reached a point where it's gone fast enough like desktops have 7-8 years ago.

 

[JAG87]

iPad

Is this thread about iPad? iPad has no 2-year subsidy incentive, a battery service life of at least 4 years (1000 cycles and lasts a lot longer between cycles), and in general a beefier SoC that endures iOS upgrades better then the iPhone SoC. Same goes with Macbooks. What's there to bait customers into upgrading?

This thread is about iPhone. iPhone is designed from the ground up to be a 2-year bait mechanism. That's why it's Apple's cash cow. That, and of course the fact that a smartphone is more of a necessity than a tablet or a laptop.

 

[touchstone]

I'm curious, what do all these technological advancements bring over a phone two, three generations ago? My HTC One M7 has a perfectly sharp retina display where the pixels are completely imperceptible, it's plenty fast for any apps I throw at it. The camera is probably better on the iphone by a good margin. I'd imagine the battery life would be better given it's on a 14nm process. But aside from those two things, what really is going to be much improved in terms of experience? Have we reached the point where phones have become fast enough? Why does anyone need an 8 core CPU in their phone? You can't even multitask on a phone. It looks like phones have even reached a point where it's gone fast enough like desktops have 7-8 years ago.

The only reason we talk about 'good enough' computing with desktops, is because intel/AMD have failed to deliver any significant speed increases in almost a decade. Core 2 was almost 10 years ago, and that was the last time anybody was truly impressed with x86 on a performance level. x86 is just not interesting at all... it's a utilitarian platform that will soon be relegated to data centers and legacy systems.


I don't know what happens to x86 when our phones become faster than our desktops, but I can't wait because my desktop is boring as f*ck. I think the Exynos SoC in my phone outperforms legacy core i3 desktops from 2011 in short bursts at least.

 

[Eug]

I'm curious, what do all these technological advancements bring over a phone two, three generations ago? My HTC One M7 has a perfectly sharp retina display where the pixels are completely imperceptible, it's plenty fast for any apps I throw at it. The camera is probably better on the iphone by a good margin. I'd imagine the battery life would be better given it's on a 14nm process. But aside from those two things, what really is going to be much improved in terms of experience? Have we reached the point where phones have become fast enough? Why does anyone need an 8 core CPU in their phone? You can't even multitask on a phone. It looks like phones have even reached a point where it's gone fast enough like desktops have 7-8 years ago.

You can edit video on my iPhone 5s, but it's slow. I would like to see it faster. Why would you ever edit video on an iPhone? Because you take video on an iPhone, and it's nice to be able to post directly from your iPhone. I don't do it often, but I do it sometimes.

However, there are bigger issues. For instance a lot of 3 year-old Android phones only have 1 GB RAM. 1 GB RAM is an annoyance on iOS. It's a much bigger hindrance on Android IMO. 2 GB didn't become standard until about 2 years ago or so, and still doesn't exist on iOS, except for the iPad Air 2 (which is great by the way).

Is this thread about iPad? iPad has no 2-year subsidy incentive, a battery service life of at least 4 years (1000 cycles and lasts a lot longer between cycles), and in general a beefier SoC that endures iOS upgrades better then the iPhone SoC. Same goes with Macbooks. What's there to bait customers into upgrading?

This thread is about iPhone. iPhone is designed from the ground up to be a 2-year bait mechanism. That's why it's Apple's cash cow. That, and of course the fact that a smartphone is more of a necessity than a tablet or a laptop.

This thread about iPhone, but your reason that Apple's retention methods are the best in the industry and therefore guarantee increased sales should also apply to other Apple products, including other iOS products, but they don't.

There are other reasons, some of which you mentioned, but others include the fact that Apple has been expanding into different markets too.

 

[ChronoReverse]

The only reason we talk about 'good enough' computing with desktops, is because intel/AMD have failed to deliver any significant speed increases in almost a decade. Core 2 was almost 10 years ago, and that was the last time anybody was truly impressed with x86 on a performance level. x86 is just not interesting at all... it's a utilitarian platform that will soon be relegated to data centers and legacy systems.

Which is... not entirely true. Even for webpages you can sometimes notice the difference between the current i7 versus a Core 2.

When you actually do things needing CPU power then the difference is stark.