The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has finally signed a deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to make its guts for future iPhones and iPads. Specifically, TSMC will start mass-producing 20 nanometer chips for Apple in 2014, paving way for longer battery life in Samsung-less iPhones and iPads.
The Apple pact with TSMC has long been rumored. From Cupertino's point of view, it makes sense because Apple has been wanting to ditch anything and everything Samsung for a long time. It's always been hilarious that though Apple had a serious court war with Samsung, Samsung was making a bunch of chips (and screens and flash memory) that Apple needs. From TSMC's point of view, the chip maker is landing a whale of an order which means an ocean of money.
Supposedly, Samsung will continue to make guts for the next iPhones and iPads until at least 2014. Samsung supplies many of the internals of Apple's products, something that Apple has been looking to reduce in recent years (as their relationship has gone toxic). Apple has been looking to dance with TSMC since 2010 when it was looking to invest in the company and/or have TSMC dedicate a factory for Apple chips. It looks like Apple is finally closing. [WSJ]