Courtesy of Benzinga.
With or without a patent trial victory, Samsung has found a new way to make money on every iPhone sold.
The South Korean manufacturer has raised the price of its chips by 20 percent. Instead of going to a new supplier, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has reportedly decided to accept the price increase because it has no other options.
According to CNET, Apple is actively searching for other manufacturers that can produce a high volume of chips for its iDevices. For the time being, however, Samsung is the only company capable of meeting Apple’s demands.
MarketWatch reported that Apple purchased 130 million units from Samsung last year. In 2012, the company purchased more than 200 million units.
Samsung is expected to continue making chips for Apple until its contract expires in 2014, presenting an interesting alliance between the two firms. On Friday, Samsung announced that it had convinced Judge Lucy Koh to hear its complaints regarding the jury foreman of its domestic patent trial with Apple. The trial concluded in August when the jury awarded Apple a $1.05 billion verdict. Samsung argues that the jury foreman should have disclosed the fact that he was sued by Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), his former employer. In 2011, Samsung purchased the hard disc drive division of Seagate and become the firm’s largest single shareholder.
If Judge Koh rules that the jury foreman should have revealed his prior connection to Samsung, it could lead to a mistrial. This would force Apple and Samsung to start all over with a new jury.
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