Samsung versus Apple and TSMC!

Apple will purchase close to eightBILLION dollars in parts from Samsung for the iSeries of products this year alone, making Apple Samsung’s largest customer. Samsung is also Apple’s largest competitor and TSMC’s most viable competitive foundry threat so it was no surprise to see Apple and TSMC team up on the next generations of iProducts. The legal battle between Samsung and Apple did come as a surprise however and will change how we do business for years to come.

“Our mission is to be the trusted technology and capacity provider of the global IC industry for years to come.” TSMC Website

During the past 25+ years I have been to South Korea a dozen or so times working with EDA and SemIP companies in pursuit of Samsung business. South Korea is a great place to visit but South Korea is not a great place to do business (my opinion) due to serious ethical dilemmas. Let’s not forget the Samsung corruption scandalthat engulfed the government of South Korea. Let’s not forget the never ending chip dumping probes. The book “Think Samsung” by ex-Samsung legal counsel accuses Samsung of being the most corrupt company in Asia. So does it really surprise you that Apple is divorcing Samsung for cloning the iPad and iPhone?

I was never an Apple fanboy, always choosing “open” products for my personal and professional needs. If the IBM PC was “closed” and obsessively controlled like Macs, where would personal computing be today? The iPod was the first Apple product to invade my home and only after a handful of other MPEG players failed on me. Without iPod/iTunes where would the music industry be today?

iPad2s came to my house next. Would there even be a tablet market without the iPad? I looked at other tablets but since they were to be gifts to SemiWiki users I had a much more critical eye for quality. I even kept one of the SemiWiki iPad2s which I now use daily. We still have some iPad2s left so register for SemiWiki today and maybe you will win one!

A MacBook Air ALMOST came next, but I chickened out and bought a Dell XPS instead. The support burden of moving my family of six from Dell/HP/Sony laptops to Apple Town was just too much to fathom.

iPhone5s for the entire family will be next, Santa is bringing them for Christmas. I’m tired of my Blackberry and I being out smartphoned by snot nosed iPhone kids. I did look at the Samsung iPhone and iPad clones, and while they are less expensive, my professional experience with Samsung will not allow me to buy their products. I will wait for an Apple flat screen TV as well.

Paul McLellan did a nice write up of “The battle of the Patents” for the wireless business: Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Nokia, and here comes a real threat to the mobile industry, Amazon (Kindle Fire Tablet)!

The Apple / Samsung legal debacle will most definitely change the semiconductor foundry business. Can Samsung or even Intel become “the trusted technology and capacity provider of the global IC industry for years to come”? Not a chance.