Samsung will get more money from iPhone X sales than from Galaxy S8
Эксперты считают, что Apple сможет продать более 130 млн iPhone X примерно за 20 месяцев. На каждой продаже корпорация Samsung заработает около $110. При продаже собственного Galaxy S8 южнокорейская компания зарабатывает меньше денег
Partnerships between different technology companies are so interesting that you can write books and make films about it (which, in fact, some writers and directors do). If you take the development and manufacture of the phone, then no company in the world can cope with this on their own (if we are talking about complex smartphones like the iPhone or Galaxy S8). The chips are made by one company, the screens are made by another, protective glasses are the third. Someone else is engaged in the final assembly of components. The complete chain of development and sales is very complex, not only purely technologically but also organizationally.
In principle, even if someone wanted to develop everything on their own, this is hardly a real task, since technology giants own patents on key technologies and forbid each other to produce similar things. If we take the real situation, there is also the issue of volumes. So, no company in the world, except Samsung, is able to produce and supply for the same Apple as many displays, NAND, DRAM chips as it needs. Inveterate competitors actually turn out to be business partners who have very close cooperation. And while the South Korean company earns on the sale of the iPhone X more than Apple.
At Samsung, the supply of components for electronic devices is a very significant part of the business, which brings the company about 35% of its revenue. Apple is one of the largest customers for Samsung.
Each iPhone X sold by Apple will bring Samsung about $ 110. Experts believe that in 20 months after the start of sales of the flagship Apple, Samsung will receive about $ 14.3 billion in revenue. Over the same period, revenue from sales of the Galaxy S8 will be approximately $ 10.1 billion.
What is interesting, despite all the litigation, both companies have been operating for more than ten years. It was ten years ago that the grandson of the founder of Samsung agreed with Steve Jobs on the supply of memory chips for the iPod. Since then, cooperation has only expanded, taking on new forms, the South Korean company began to supply not only components for the iPod, but also electronic components for other Apple products, plus screens for the company's phones.
The current capabilities of Samsung - the production and supply of about 130 million 5.8-inch OLED-displays per year. But this is a purely theoretical possibility; in practice, a corporation will be able to produce about 40% less screens. Nevertheless, this should be enough for the uninterrupted release of the iPhone X. By the way, it is not yet known how popular and marketable this phone will be, since the same “eights” so far no one has bought up. This time there were no usual queues, people who occupy a place in the queue to buy a phone many days before the start of sales. In general, no excitement, so it may well happen that Apple does not need as many displays.
When asked about their attitude towards Apple, Samsung executives say that everything is fine, because the corporation from Cupertino is the best customer. In the process of working with Samsung on various components, Apple is given code names for the customer. This, for example, "favorite opponent" (LO, Lovely Opponent). Despite this, in 2011 both companies entered into open conflict, which dragged on for many months and was not resolved to the end. Then Jobs called this problem a "thermonuclear" legal war.
This conflict led to the fact that the sale of devices of the participants in the litigation was prohibited alternately in different countries. And in South Korea, the Seoul District Court at one time and in general forbade selling devices to both Apple and Samsung. The judge decided that both companies were guilty of violating each other’s patents.
Experts believe that Samsung is now completely dictates the terms of supply of Apple. In this case, the American company can not do anything, because the same OLED-displays that are installed in the iPhone X, no one else can produce, especially in such quantities as Samsung does. As a result, the price of a single screen for Apple is $ 120-140, while the screens for the iPhone 7 Plus cost the corporation $ 45-50.