Samsung denies rumor of increased cost of chip production
Word's been going around that due to the recent friction between Apple and Samsung on the end product front, Samsung has decided to charge Apple even more for another one of its businesses: The chip assembly line. Apple depends on Samsung to make a few different components for its devices, and the rumor mill was saying that Samsung was making things harder for Apple on that supply side. But Samsung has now said that prices haven't changed, for Apple or anyone else.
A spokesman for Samsung says that prices on the chips Apple is using "are set at the beginning of the year and aren't changed easily." That's not exactly a denial of the friction we've heard about, but it does make sense that Samsung wouldn't change any deals already in place.
Any deals in the future, however, might be strained, to say the least. Apple is not a company that likes to depend on any other companies, especially competitors (just look at the recent replacement of Google Maps for an example of that one). So even if prices for Apple haven't yet changed, odds are that both Samsung and Apple are looking for ways to change this agreement back to their own advantage.
