Apple and Samsung have had quite the dysfunctional relationship. Even though Apple has tried banning their phones and tablets and won a $1.05 billion lawsuit against them, Samsung’s display business still supplies displays to them. At least for now.
According to the Korea Times who supposedly spoke with an anonymous executive, starting in 2013, Samsung Display will no longer make display panels for Apple. This definitely looks like it could be legit considering that Samsung has reduced displays to Apple from 15 million in the first half of this year, all the way down to three million in the most recent quarter.
Not to mention that it’s estimated only 1.8 million units will be shipped by the end of the year. The rumored reason for all this? Samsung is no longer satisfied with the big discounts that Apple is wanting. Digging deeper, the price per pixel has nearly halved from the iPad 2 to iPad 3.
Considering that Apple represents a good chunk of their business, it’s going to hurt their sales, right? Well, Samsung Display plans on simply selling more displays to Samsung Electronics and Amazon who has a new line of Kindle Fire HD tablets.
Apple is known to be a very hard bargainer and tends to get their way because of how influential they are in the marketplace. However, if the rumor pans out and an agreement can’t be reached, Samsung will end up saying bye bye to a large customer.
What do you think? Will Samsung follow through with it or do you think that even at a large discount, they’d stand to lose too much money if they part ways?