Apple. Inc is expected to move beyond its comfort zone of designing silicon and is looking towards manufacturing its own chipset. If rumors are to be believed, Apple is now planning to extend its capabilities and rely less on external chip set manufacturers like TSMC or Samsung. The announcement of the release dates of iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 have added more credence to these reports.
As per trusted sources, Apple’s buy-in into a not yet revealed chip fabrication plant is not simply an investment which is trivial in nature. The names of a Taiwan based chip manufacturer have been often linked with that of Apple. It is believed that this company is planning to aid the Big A revert back to the world of Nvidia graphics processors for its MacBooks.
Over the years, Samsung has been building chips for the iPad, iPod touch, iPhone and Apple TV. With an increase in competition between the two giants, Apple now wishes to reduce its reliance on Samsung. The latest rumors suggest that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is expected to partner with Apple for manufacturing chipset—beginning 2014. However, the diversification efforts can lead to a lot more investments by Apple in the chip fabrication company and this may go beyond\d the figures mentioned in the manufacturing agreement.
