Roger Fingas
Samsung Electronics on Monday said it expects memory demand that drove record second-quarter profits to continue into the September quarter — something that may hint at its involvement in Apple's upcoming iPhones, particularly the "iPhone 8."
The company made the disclosure in announcing a $7 billion expansion of its NAND memory production in the Chinese city of Xi'an, according to Reuters. The company has already approved $2.3 billion of the investment, and should invest the total over the course of three years.
Samsung has long been a part of the Apple supply chain in varying capacities, and a recent rumor indicated that Samsung will help SK Hynix supply 512-gigabyte modules for the "iPhone 8." 64- and 256-gigabyte modules will allegedly come from Toshiba and SanDisk.
There's been no word so far on which firms are producing memory for Apple's "iPhone 7s" and "7s Plus," but Apple typically relies on a select group. This is mostly because of the sheer scale required — global iPhone units can reach tens of millions in a single quarter.
Apple is likely to reveal all three new iPhones at a September press event. The "iPhone 8" should feature an edge-to-edge, 5.8-inch OLED display — made by Samsung — with a virtual control area and 3D facial recognition taking the place of a Touch ID-equipped home button. The "7s" and "7s Plus" should mostly resemble their predecessors, but include some improvements from the "8," such as an "A11" processor and wireless charging.
Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
7 Comments
By doing business with Samsung, Apple contributes MILLIONS of times to Samsung's coffers than ANY individual buying phones/other products from them. When people in this forum call those Samsung phone buyers various names, what would they call Apple as? I don't have anything against Apple, just calling out the "hypocrisy" shown by MANY people in this forum.
My own view - There is nothing wrong in Apple doing business with Samsung, because that is what it is - business. In the same way, people who buy Samsung products should not be called with derogatory terms. It is just NOT on. It would be extremely hypocritical to call "individuals" names when "appreciating/admiring" a company (Apple) for doing business with the "same" company (Samsung).
Part of the is due to the whole industry switching away from spinning rust. Apple certainly contributes a significant bloom in sales for the quarter the new phones debut but that doesn't mean that the SSD isn't going along with strong sales. The fact is demand fo SSD's is pretty strong.