Rumor: Samsung trying to earn new iPhone supply chain slot with EMI-shielded NAND

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone
South Korean electronics behemoth Samsung is reportedly attempting to claw back the lucrative iPhone NAND business from competitors with a new process for shielding the important flash memory from electromagnetic interference.




The company is working with U.S.- and Taiwan-based suppliers to develop a spray-on coating process for EMI shielding that meets Apple's standards, according to ETNews. Spraying the coating not only saves money, but also makes it possible to use more compact packaging for the modules themselves.

As chips shrink and logic boards become more tightly packed, the possibility of components interfering with one another increases. For this reason, Apple has moved toward more aggressive EMI shielding practices in an effort to avoid trouble.

Samsung was one of Apple's earliest partners, but lost its spot as a primary vendor of flash memory to fellow Korean firm SK Hynix more than four years ago.

In the interim, falling prices have combined with Apple's dominance of the mobile device industry to put a squeeze on the profits from Samsung's memory division. This has reportedly spurred the company to seek reconciliation with the iPhone maker.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,251member
    If Samsung really wants Apple's business (back), they should come up with a process that keeps hackers from reading NAND or any other memory device inside the iPhone. This would include bricking the NAND if someone tried unsoldering it or trying to read the component without it being connected to a proper circuit. 
    jony0badmonk
  • Reply 2 of 9
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    I'm sure Hynix can implement a similar spray-on EMI shield. It sounds like an obvious technique.
    jony0badmonk
  • Reply 3 of 9
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    rob53 said:
    If Samsung really wants Apple's business (back), they should come up with a process that keeps hackers from reading NAND or any other memory device inside the iPhone. This would include bricking the NAND if someone tried unsoldering it or trying to read the component without it being connected to a proper circuit. 

    If Samsung really wants Apple's business back they should cough up that big fat cheque they owe them for infringement.
    welshdogpatchythepiratejony0badmonk
  • Reply 4 of 9
    freerangefreerange Posts: 1,597member
    "reconciliation"? Simple, put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. Short of that, find a moral compas and grow a conscience, after you pay ALL of the profits to Apple from your infringement.
    patchythepiratejony0badmonk
  • Reply 5 of 9
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,096member
    If this is indeed true, I'm ecstatic to know that Samsung is wanting to bend-over in the hopes Apple gives it to them where it counts.  

    I really hope Apple makes Samsung the absolute, border-line-at-death-bed last resort for any components.  Samsung has stolen from Apple left and right and obviously has zero issues with continuing that wretched behavior.

    Samsung makes awesome components like memory and screens, but screw them.  There has to be a time where a message needs to be sent that you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
    badmonk
  • Reply 6 of 9
    Herbivore2Herbivore2 Posts: 367member
    Well, it's not as if Samsung is the only involved in patent infringement. Microsoft stole the Mac GUI in creating Windows. They stole QuickTime, literally installing Apple's very code as their own. Google stole the iOS interface and the tentire smartphone hardware market has stolen the iPhone design. LG's G4 is no better. Google's Motorola, Xiaomi, Huawei, HTC and a number of others use the same design. Does anyone even remember the very first Android phone? I do and it wasn't a Samsung. It was a Motorola. In fact, Samsung did Apple a favor by building hardware superior to Motorola that Google had to get out of the hardware business and take a huge write off from the Motorola purchase. 

    It's Google's Eric Schmidt that sat on Apple's board who stole iOS. They also stole Java from Oracle. 

    And Google's back at it again trying to appropriate Swift into Android. 

    Apple continues to do business with Google also. Hopefully Google is losing money as a cloud provider for Apple. 

    As far as memory is concerned, if Samsung can provide a superior technology at lower cost, Apple should adopt it. It's not like iPhone and Apple Watch CPUs are not being made by Samsung. 
    patchythepiratejony0badmonk
  • Reply 7 of 9
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,322member
    cpsro said:
    I'm sure Hynix can implement a similar spray-on EMI shield. It sounds like an obvious technique.
    They did many years ago. It seems that was one of reason Apple moved to them as a supplier.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member
    Herbivore2 said:
    Well, it's not as if Samsung is the only involved in patent infringement. Microsoft stole the Mac GUI in creating Windows. They stole QuickTime, literally installing Apple's very code as their own. Google stole the iOS interface and the tentire smartphone hardware market has stolen the iPhone design. LG's G4 is no better. Google's Motorola, Xiaomi, Huawei, HTC and a number of others use the same design. Does anyone even remember the very first Android phone? I do and it wasn't a Samsung. It was a Motorola. In fact, Samsung did Apple a favor by building hardware superior to Motorola that Google had to get out of the hardware business and take a huge write off from the Motorola purchase. 

    It's Google's Eric Schmidt that sat on Apple's board who stole iOS. They also stole Java from Oracle. 

    And Google's back at it again trying to appropriate Swift into Android. 

    Apple continues to do business with Google also. Hopefully Google is losing money as a cloud provider for Apple. 

    As far as memory is concerned, if Samsung can provide a superior technology at lower cost, Apple should adopt it. It's not like iPhone and Apple Watch CPUs are not being made by Samsung. 

    <Bookmarked to read GG's response>
  • Reply 9 of 9
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,295member
    Herbivore2 said:
    Well, it's not as if Samsung is the only involved in patent infringement. Microsoft stole the Mac GUI in creating Windows. They stole QuickTime, literally installing Apple's very code as their own. Google stole the iOS interface and the tentire smartphone hardware market has stolen the iPhone design. LG's G4 is no better. Google's Motorola, Xiaomi, Huawei, HTC and a number of others use the same design. Does anyone even remember the very first Android phone? I do and it wasn't a Samsung. It was a Motorola. In fact, Samsung did Apple a favor by building hardware superior to Motorola that Google had to get out of the hardware business and take a huge write off from the Motorola purchase. 

    It's Google's Eric Schmidt that sat on Apple's board who stole iOS. They also stole Java from Oracle. 

    And Google's back at it again trying to appropriate Swift into Android. 

    Apple continues to do business with Google also. Hopefully Google is losing money as a cloud provider for Apple. 

    As far as memory is concerned, if Samsung can provide a superior technology at lower cost, Apple should adopt it. It's not like iPhone and Apple Watch CPUs are not being made by Samsung. 
    Thanks for the summary.
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