In the wake of Apple's recent courtroom victory over Samsung, many pundits have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, assuming Cupertino will cut off the Korean manufacturer's component business -- turns out it's the other way around.
The Korea Times reported on Monday that the country's Samsung Display division plans to terminate its lucrative contract with Apple, who it has provided with liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for some time.
The news isn't entirely a surprise, given the courtroom blow recently given to Samsung in the wake of one of many patent battles percolating with the iPhone maker. However, media reports would have us believe that Apple would be the one doing the cutting off, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.
“We are unable to supply our flat-screens to Apple with huge price discounts," an unnamed senior Samsung source told the newspaper on Monday. "Samsung has already cut our portion of shipments to Apple and next year we will stop shipping displays."
The 2013 cutoff comes as both Samsung Electronics and Amazon continue to step up their own LCD panel orders for their tablet products, which the display division appears to be counting on to make up for the loss of Apple's business.
According to the report, Samsung Display shipped more than 15 million LCD panels to Apple in the first half of 2012, making it Cupertino's top supplier compared to LG Display with 12.5 million and Sharp with only 2.8 million.
Although "plummeting margins" from Apple buys are cited as Samsung's reasoning, the report falls right in line with recent rumors pointing to a larger rift between the two companies as their patent battles heat up -- and show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
