TSMC will be exclusively in charge of iPhone 7 processors

Feb 11, 2016 10:54 GMT  ·  By

It turns out that the batterygate that impacted the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus has cost Samsung the CPU manufacturing contract for the next-generation iPhone, as Apple has picked TSMC as the sole producer of processors for the upcoming model.

A report coming from The Electronic Times and citing people with knowledge of the matter reveals that TSMC has won the duel with Samsung and has been selected the only manufacturer of iPhone 7 processors, which are very likely to be called A10.

Back in the fall of 2015, when Apple launched the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, it was discovered that models equipped with a chip manufactured by TSMC benefit from an extra 2 hours of battery life, as compared to the ones equipped with a CPU made by Samsung.

Big hit for Samsung

Although Apple has never criticized Samsung publicly, it was believed that the company wasn’t very pleased with such news, so Cupertino was looking to hand over only a small part of the manufacturing processor to Samsung for the next-generation iPhone.

Now, after talks with both companies, it appears that Apple has decided to go only with TSMC, with the same report claiming that that its 10-nanometer manufacturing capacity was also a decisive factor for this change.

With Apple struggling to make the new iPhone thinner than before, a smaller but still more powerful chip would make more sense for the company. But choosing TSMC over Samsung is definitely a hit for the South Korean company, with people close to the matter pointing to increased production capacity targeted by Apple for the upcoming iPhone model.

The new model is projected to debut in September while some sources claim that Apple might bring it a little bit sooner to the market in order to benefit from increasing sales during the holiday season.