Apple has decided to lessen the reliance on its smartphone rival Samsung Electrnonics and has reportedly chosen TSMC as the sole maker of the A10 processors that will power the iPhone 7 series.
A new report from S. Korea -- following earlier reports -- names TSMC as the only vendor for the new Apple A10 processors, boosting TSMC's bottom line. Previously, the application processors of the iPhones were manufactured by Samsung's fabrication plants.
This puts Samsung to a secondary role, as the Korean company continues to supply rival Apple with mobile DRAMs and NAND flash memory chips.
However, Samsung's logic chip fabrication lines both in Korea and the United States are expected to remain fully operational without suffering a lack of business thanks to the increased orders from Qualcomm.
Qualcomm is dropping TSMC and going to its largest competitor Samsung for its finer 14-nanometer technology this year and 10-nanometer next year. Qualcomm contributed to over 20 percent of TSMC's revenue in 2014.
Qualcomm's popular Snapdragon 820 chipsets are using Samsung's 14-nanometer processing tech an have gained popularity among smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Sony and Xiaomi.
Qualcomm, Samsung and TSMC avoided to provide any comment.