The patent warfare between the two tech giants Samsung and Apple seem to have culminated with the former’s decision to terminate the LCD panel supply deal with its American rival Apple. Both the companies have been dependent on each other for electronic components for a long time. The deal between the two has proved enormously profitable for each of them. Samsung is the greatest suppliers of LCD panels for Apple till now.
But the news that we have got from The Korean Times clearly indicates that the bitterness caused by the recent patent trolls between the two firms has made the Korean manufacturer frown enough to discontinue the LCD supply relationship starting the next year. The Koean news agency reports a reliable Samsung Source saying, “We are unable to supply our flat-screens to Apple with huge price discounts. Samsung has already cut our portion of shipments to Apple and next year we will stop shipping displays.”
Another Samsung source, who is directly involved with the matter told the newspaper how Samsung is working on cutting the LCD cord since the beginning of this year: “But Samsung shipped less than 3 million to Apple during the third quarter of this year and we expect the quarterly shipment in the fourth quarter to fall to some 1.5 million.”
The Samsung insider further explained that the decision has been taken in view of the growing demand of LCD panels from the company’s mobile device (phones and tablets both) manufacturing division and Amazon which will compensate Samsung for the loss and void created by the broken deal with Apple. The question remains unanswered is whether Apple will be able to cope with its requirement of LCD panels for its iPad devices within the time-frame given by Samsung!
Source: The Korea Times
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