Intel Could Win 10% of Apple’s A7 Chip Orders [Digitimes]

Intel’s push to enter into the chip contracting business has sparked rumours of a possible partnership with Apple. According to “institutional investors” cited by a Digitimes report, Intel could be awarded as much as 10% of Apple’s next-generation chip orders.


As rumours of Apple’s next-generation iPhone begin to gain traction, voices are beginning to whisper that both TSMC and Samsung are competing for Apple’s A7 chip manufacturing orders. Apple is reportedly looking to move chip production away from Samsung, which has become its biggest rival in the mobile field. TSMC, on the other hand, is rumoured to be starting manufacture of the A-series chip as early as this year.

Inside sources cited by Digitimes claim that Apple will likely assign Samsung to manufacture about 50% of its A7-chips, while the remaining half will be manufactured by TSMC and Intel, with the latter obtaining about 10% of the total orders.

“According to institutional investors, Samsung is likely to receive 50% of the A7 processor orders, TSMC 40%, and Intel 10%.”

“In the past, Apple’s processor orders were unattractive because of low profit margins and Samsung was the only cooperating firm. In addition, at the time Samsung’s smartphones were no threat to Apple’s iPhone. But Samsung has since become the biggest smartphone vendor in the world.”

The report comes on the heels of earlier reports alleging Apple and Intel were in talks for the latter to potentially build chips for iDevices, but the two parties have yet reached an agreement.