Samsung may supply its own socs to more smartphone manufacturers

According to Reuters, Samsung is in talks with various smartphone manufacturers about the possible delivery of mobile chips. It would be the Exynos-socs, with which Samsung is trying to increase its market share compared to Qualcomm.

Inyup Kang, executive vice president of Samsung and former Qualcomm executive, confirmed the talks to Reuters. Except for ZTE, no manufacturer names have been mentioned, but he expects Samsung to announce a new customer for the Exynos chips in the first half of 2019. Samsung’s mobile chips have so far only been in its own smartphones and in phones from the Chinese manufacturer Meizu. In the mobile socs market, Apple and Qualcomm are much bigger than Samsung.

It is not clear whether the talks with ZTE are related to the US trade ban previously imposed on the Chinese manufacturer. As a result, US companies will no longer be able to supply components to ZTE for seven years. This increases the need for the Chinese manufacturer to source parts from as many different suppliers as possible. ZTE largely depends on American suppliers such as Qualcomm and Intel for chips. Qualcomm says it expects a three percent lower profit in the next quarter as ZTE was forced to shut down its operations due to the sanctions.

Kang has said that Samsung will remain in talks with ZTE regardless of the outcome of US President Trump’s apparent attempt to work with Chinese President to help ZTE back on its feet.