Leading mobile device processor company Qualcomm is reported to be contracting Samsung to produce their chips. Qualcomm holds a majority of the mobile device market and is found in nearly all high-end smartphones, but has no manufacturing facilities of their own. Instead the partner with other companies, including Taiwan's TSMC and GlobalFoundries. But with increasing demand for their Snapdragon processors, Qualcomm is apparently turning to Samsung to help bolster their production.
Though Samsung is known these days primarily for their smartphones, their business also includes substantial components manufacturing arms. Samsung's responsible for 8% of the world's mobile processors, and holds a 37% share of both the DRAM and AND flash markets. Samsung's also been a longtime chip foundry partner with Apple, though tensions long-simmering tensions between the two have seen more of Apple's A-series processors being built by TSMC.
Qualcomm chips manufactured by Samsung will still be Qualcomm chips — it'd be Samsung building processors to Qualcomm's designs. But would it make a difference to you who actually manufactured your smartphone's processor, or just who made it?
Source: Yonhap
