Samsung and Apple have what could be described as a rocky relationship. One of them is suing the other for one reason or another once a week, or so it seems. Well now, it seems that Samsung is cutting the one friendly relationship with Apple they had left. They have decided to discontinue the LCD supplier relationship they had with Apple starting next year.
Samsung cites insufficient margins from Apple’s supply pricing strategy. Apple has been scaling back on using Samsung in its LCD supply, so for Samsung, the relationship has not been nearly as profitable as it used to be. Of course, those reasons could be Samsung putting a civil spin on the fact that it’s just not a fan of Apple.
Samsung is making up for the loss with its consumer electronics division and from selling LCDs to Amazon. The sales from these should keep Samsung plenty busy, and easily fill the void from the relationship with Apple, who has been getting many of its screens from LG and Sharp recently anyway. Of course, Samsung also has plenty of its own devices to make screens for, such as the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.
With the last friendly part of Samsung and Apple’s relationship coming to a close, let’s just hope the patent lawsuits don’t go to another level. It should be interesting to see where the Samsung and Apple relationship goes over the coming months, especially into next year when they are no longer working together for LCDs. We will keep you posted on all things Samsung and Apple as it happens.
[via TechCrunch]
Was Samsung simply manufacturing to spec and shipping or were they supplying technological know how as well?