Despite Apple’s public disdain for Samsung, both companies still need each other for business. Apple relies heavily on Samsung to produce components used in their products, and with the amount of products that Apple ships, Samsung needs their business just as much as well. While there has been talk about Apple trying to reduce their reliance on Samsung, it seems that won’t be happening anytime soon.
According to a report from DisplaySearch, they have found that Samsung Display is Apple’s number 1 supplier of display panels used in the iPad. The South Korean tech giant managed to ship 5.2 million units of 9.7-inch display panels to Apple in Q1 2014 alone, which accounts for 62% of the total shipments of that particular display size and resolution, which is actually quite a lot.
Of course Apple does not rely solely on Samsung for their components, as LG Display is one of Apple’s suppliers too, although it seems that LG Display has taken a hit in terms of orders. According to the numbers, LG Display only accounted for 38% in the first quarter of 2014, which is a drop from 61% back in Q4 2013, suggesting that despite Apple and Samsung not being fans of one another, Samsung could be making better quality components in line with Apple’s demands.
There have also been reports that suggests that Apple could continue relying on Samsung to produce their A-series of chipsets, despite claims that Apple would turn to TSMC. Apart from displays, Samsung also provides other pieces of hardware to Apple, such as hard drives for their computers, for example.