It’s not exactly a secret that Apple and Samsung’s relationship has become more strained lately. These two tech giants used to be in good relations, but that’s not the same any longer. Samsung usually supplies parts for Apple, Apple pays Samsung, and that’s it, but as already mentioned, that’s not the case any longer. The two companies are suing each other like crazy lately, Apple started going after Samsung for tons of patents, mainly because Steve Jobs believes that Android is a stolen product. Apple started to shift away from using Samsung’s components the moment lawsuits started, and that has, obviously, hurt both companies. Samsung was actually forced to make up for the huge stream of revenue coming from the Cupertino giant, and Apple of course had to find a different company to get the device components from. It looks like Apple just couldn’t function as well as it would have liked without Samsung’s help.
According to a new report out of the Korean site ETNews, Samsung and Apple have reached an agreement for the former to supply displays to the latter. The displays are expected to begin to ship in the third and fourth quarters of 2013, which are notoriously Apple’s biggest quarters in terms of product shipments and announcements.
Apple has reportedly been facing quality assurance issues with other manufactures, which has forced it to come crawling back to Samsung for displays. Samsung will reportedly supply panels for an upcoming Retina iPad mini and a full-size iPad with narrower bezels.
When the iPad mini was originally announced, we heard rumors that many of the supply issues could be attributed to other suppliers’ inability to produce the displays with slimmer bezel, which Apple supposedly believes that Samsung will be able to handle without a hitch.
One of Apple’s newest partners, Sharp, has been struggling mightily recently. Samsung has even recently bought a stake in the failing Japanese company.
Earlier this year, we heard reports claiming that Apple was looking to switch back to Samsung due to the company’s great skill in producing TFT displays, which Apple uses in the iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro with Retina.
Do you think we can declare Samsung the winner so far in the patent battles of 2013?