Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had one of the least surprising product launches in its history recently when it showed off the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s for the first time. The rumor mil got the better of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on most counts, but there is at least one spot they missed. The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) A7 processor is made by Samsung.
As the rivalry between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung grows and grows, it seems inevitable that the companies will stop doing business with each other at some point. Despite the shortages of the iPhone 5s seen today, iFixit got their hands on a model and tore it to pieces. In the destruction, the team found out the heart of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5s is built by Samsung.
Apple-Samsung iPhone 5s
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) doesn’t make processors. The company does not have the facilities or the expertise to build the components, and with $150 billion on hand, that means it probably doesn’t want to. Samsung has been fabricating the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)-designed chips ever since the first iPhone was released, and that hasn’t changed.
The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) A7 chip is made by Samsung, and it may be similar to the chip used in the Galaxy S4. The team at iFixit said, “we suspect we will see Samsung’s 28 nm Hi K metal Gate (HKMG) being used. We have observed this same process in the Samsung Exynos Application processor used in the Galaxy S IV.”
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fans can be proud to own the fastest phone on the planet, if they managed to get their hands on the iPhone 5s. They will, however, have to concede that arch-rival Samsung had a large role in developing the smartphone.
iPhone 5s components
The tear down of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone 5s will continue at iFixit until little but dust remains. The team has already identified key information about the processor, and they’ve also found some interesting information about the second processor introduced in the iPhone 5s: the motion-centric M7.
That chip is apparently a generic model called the LPC18A1. It’s made by a smaller semiconductor maker called NXP. The chip is apparently not an Apple designed piece at all. M7 appears to be a marketing tool, rather than a new chip developed by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
