Apple-Samsung chip-partnership still strong, says expert

The chip-partnership between Apple and Samsung is still strong, an expert has revealed.

CEO of chip industry tracker VLSI Research, Dan Hutcheson, earlier believed that Samsung won't be a supplier to Apple for its future processors and other silicon.

However, after his recent trip to South Korea, he found that in summertime, Samsung's manufacturing labs were running pretty empty, but then all of a sudden they started coming back, Cnet reports.

Hutcheson had earlier opined that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, was going to get most of Apple's future processor business.

The chief has claimed that there's an interesting wrinkle to Samsung's strategy as it is working with US-based Globalfoundries to try to keep Apple out of TSMC.

According to the report, even though Apple may do business with TSMC in the future, its bond with Samsung remains strong, despite their rivalry in devices and their ongoing legal acrimony.

Hutcheson said that it's not so much about TSMC as much as it's that Apple has been with Samsung for a long time and learned how to work that relationship, the report added.