47 
Apple has exacting demands when it comes to quality control, and few things need to hit harder on quality than the retina screen on the new iPad. According to Bloomberg, the only company that was able to make the screens up to Apple standards was Samsung. You know, the company Apple’s been trying to sue into the ground for months and months. Awkward.
Bloomberg says that LG and Sharp both failed to meet Apple’s quality control standards, leaving Samsung as the lone manufacturer for the screen, at least at first. Both companies are set to start producing iPad screens for this generation as early as April, provided they can catch up to Samsung on quality.
Samsung also makes Apple’s new A5X chip, which means it’s manufacturing two of the biggest upgrades to the iPad this year. Which is very telling, considering how acrimonious things have been between it and Apple lately. They fight over everything. Samsung’s been making iPhone components since forever, but this is a continuation in spite of all the fighting. Either way, nice to see that both are willing to bury the hatchet to make beautiful iPads together. (And I guess this is where Apple would say it just wishes Samsung would stop making crappy iPad knockoffs all on its own, and Samsung would tell Apple to suck it.) [Bloomberg via TNW]
Oh the delicious irony of it all.
I’m sure someone can tell me – why if Samsung was the only company that oculd make these high spec screens, didn’t Samsung just refuse to sell them to Apple and make some nice high resolution tablets for themselves instead?
because samsung are probably making a lot more money engineering with apple than they would engineering for a tablet that didn’t have “iPad” written on it. like apple or not, they already have notoriety and a huge share of the tablet market
Samsung simply makes a tonne of money from Apple, and they want to keep it that way.
Also we think of Samsung as a tech company, but in reality it is a huge multinational congolmerate. Did you know Samsung was the world’s second largest shipbuilder? They also do construction, life insurance and a load of other things (there’s even a Samsung theme park.) Crazy stuff.
Because nobody would buy them.
If I where Samsung I would slip in a few duds, Apple trade on their good name, if anything where to happen to that good name it would damage Apple more than the lawsuits will.
Err dude, Apple has shipped a lot of faulty crap in the past. Especially with dud screens. Doesn’t stop people buying them.
Other companies ARE releasing tablets with higher res screens. e.g. the Transformer Prime Infinity, which also has a “Retina” display in all but name.
Of course their definition of “Retina” for a tablet is even more contrived than it is for the 3.2″ iPhone. In other words “Retina” as a feature is even more full of shit than it ever was before.
apple managed to muscle the word “samsung” out of every processor chip since the “Apple A4″. which is very apple of them
I think Apple design it, and Samsung manufacture it (though I guess it’s not as simple as that.) But calling it anything other than the Apple A5X would be like calling it the Foxconn iPhone.
i agree, but i was referring to the fact that the 3GS processor was called a “Samsung S5L8920″. which is a pretty horrible name for anything, and sounds more like a serial code than anything important
lol yes, though I don’t think Apple had anything to do with the designing of the processors before the A4, they were just off the shelf parts from Samsung (as far as I know.) After the 3GS Apple began designing the chip themselves so they got to stick their name on it.
oh i see, didn’t know that
I reckon it’s unlikely that Apple ‘design’ the screen, or much else of the technical detail for that matter.
I imagine they ask for specification targets i.e. a screen with the maximum performance at a certain price point and see who offers the best compromise.
We get to see glimpses of the existing technology pipeline with prototype exposes at events like CES, so clearly Samsung et all have (probably several) generations of new product lined up – the issue’s keeping them in the pipeline (as opposed to on the shelves) are recouping investment in current tech, then refining new tech performance and ramping up the production capacity to meet the economies of scale required to hit those price points, both for Apple, others and their own products.
Exactly. I get so tired of seeing these religous Apple devotees insisting that Apple “design” all their hardware.
What a crock of shit! “Designed by Apple, built by Samsung” is the biggest joke in this industry. What on EARTH do Apple know about screen manufacture?
Apple chose Samsung for its manufacturing facilities not because of the name or the products they produce. Its well known LG and sharp aren’t very good at making ipad screens, the first batches of iPad 2 has backlight bleeding issues if you remember, with the LG screens.
Thing you have to remember Samsung’s core business is a component company, Thats what they do and have been doing it for a very long time.
There consumer products you see today and what most people know them for started only because it was a way of Samsung Components to sell more components.
You have to think of them as different business.
Imagine how complicated the character relationships must be in the Android High School manga.
Apple-kun is rivals with Sam-Sung-chan. They both say they really hate each other. But really, Apple-kun needs her. I’d totally ship the pair. AppSung forever!