iPhone 6 Likely Free of Samsung Components on Release Date as Apple Further Diversifies iOS Supply Chain in Asia – Analyst
Beginning 2014 Apple will ramp up efforts to rely less on current players for its iOS supply chain in Asia, pointing to the likelihood that the iPhone 6 built on release date is without Samsung-supplied parts, a new report said.
The tech giant, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo, is accelerating the realisation of its plan to push out Samsung from any role in producing iOS-powered gadgets, chiefly the iPhones and iPads.
Until the Galaxy devices started making headway in the past two years, Apple and Samsung are close manufacturing collaborators with the latter securing hefty contracts that supplied processing chips and display panels for the former's smartphones and tablet computers.
The two are now bitter foes trying to outpace each other in the lucrative mobile device market. Somehow, they still play the role of limited partners as Samsung is reported to supply the Retina display component for both the iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 launches later this year.
That picture will wind down starting Q4 2013, Mr Kuo said, and by next year Samsung is finally out of Apple's universe, its realisation to be reflected via the phablet-size iPhone 6, which ironically is the U.S. firm's thrust of trumping the South Korean company in a market segment the latter had created through the first Galaxy Note released in 2011.
Likely to fill up the slack to be created by Samsung's departure are Compal Communications, Inventec Appliances and Wistron, Mr Kuo told Apple Insider. All three have been previously engaged in supplying parts for devices made by BlackBerry, Lenovo, Nokia and Sony.
Inventec, in particular, is presently a major actor in producing iPod variants. The firm will likely become one of the Taiwanese manufacturers to work on iPhone 6, which analyst said will launch in Q1 2014.
This upcoming Apple move is also seen by Mr Kuo as increasing the quality of future iPhone and iPad models following reports this year that the tech giant shipped back million units of iPhone 5 with shoddy workmanship.
The company pinpointed as the culprit for the below-par iPhone makes is Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision, owner and operator of Foxconn production facilities in mainland China.
Apple would want to ensure that its first phablet is error-free, which makes sense as the big-screen iOS smartphone is deemed as truly the big leap compared to the incremental upgrade that is the iPhone 5S, analysts said.
On release date, the iPhone 6 should showcase a 5.7-inch Retina+ display screen, a quad-core processing A8 processing chip that clocks above the 3GHz mark and loads of killer features that are previewed in the third beta version of iOS 7.