14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is working on new iPhone models that are expected to make a debut on the market later this year. There’s currently a bit of confusion related to whether the phone maker will launch two or three iPhones (a successor to the 2013 iPhone 5c included), but we’ll just have to wait and see what will eventually happen.
In addition to this, there’s also been quite a lot of speculation related to the manufacturer behind the A9 chip which will power the upcoming iPhone models (and probably new iPads too).
Apple and Samsung partnering up for the A9 chip
The rumor mill claimed TSMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries were all competing to get the job. But according to a recent report from Bloomberg, it appears that Samsung has managed to slip back into Apple’s graces after previously losing the operation to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Sources familiar with the matter now claim Samsung has won the orders for the A9 chips that will go into Apple’s next iPhone (be it the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7), with some orders going to GlobalFoundaries, which is Samsung’s partner.
Sadly for TSMC, it seems the manufacturer will be left out in the cold this year, as Apple will be doing business with the competition.
The report also advances the hypothesis that, since Samsung already made the Exynos octa 7420 SoC using a 14nm process, there would be no problem in the A9 chip being based on the same technique. This would make for a more effective chip, given the fact that the current A8 is based on a 20nm process.
Samsung will be manufacturing Apple’s next-gen chips at the Giheung plant in South Korea, but details about when mass production might begin are still sketchy. However, things shouldn’t be dragged on too long, since Apple will probably announce new iPhone models sometime around September.
Is Apple prepping the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7?
A recent report claims that, given the fact that the Cupertino tech giant is planning to add Force Touch technology into the new handset models, the company is likely to jump directly to the iPhone 7, because the new system is considered an important upgrade from previous models.
Not so long ago, we were also told that Force Touch might end up being implemented exclusively on the iPhone 6s Plus / iPhone 7 Plus model, but take this info with a grain of salt for the time being.