Apple cuts memory chip orders from Samsung

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple has cut the numbers of memory chips that it has ordered through South Korea's Samsung, a core Apple supplier, producing microprocessors, flat screens and memory chips and DRAMs and NAND memory chips for the iPhone, iPad and iPod, TechEye reports.

Apple has reportedly been cutting back its orders from Samsung as it seeks to diversify its memory chip supply lines.

But according to the Korea Economic Daily, Apple had dropped Samsung from the list of memory chip suppliers completely for the first batch of the new iPhone, the iPhone 5.

Apple is instead using Toshiba, Elpida Memory and SK Hynix to supply DRAM and NAND chips.

Reuters said that while Samsung is still on the list of initial memory chip suppliers orders have been trending down.

It does not appear that Samsung is that bothered. It is making up for the reduced order from others companies including its own, TechEye says.

The Samsung source denied market speculation that the reduced orders from Apple were prompted by the global patent rows the pair have been having. Jobs' Mob had been worried about sticking all its eggs in one basket for a while and had been looking to widen its supply chain, Samsung said.

Bernstein analysts think that Apple's purchases of mobile DRAM and NAND chips from Samsung have fallen significantly and now only account for around 2.5 percent of Samsung's 2012 earnings.