LATEST NEWS FROM SAMSUNG MOBILE

Samsung Electronics will be
making Qualcomm's upcoming
Snapdragon 820 mobile processors,
refueling speculation that the
chips could find their way into
the South Korean giant's premium
smartphones, thus winning back
lost business.
The chip-maker said Thursday it
had begun mass production of
logic chips utilizing its 14-
nanometer LPP (Low-Power Plus)
process, which is used to make
its own Exynos 8 Octa processor.
It added that the Qualcomm
Snapdragon 820 processor also
uses the 14nm LPP process and is
expected to be in devices in the
first half of this year.
Samsung and Qualcomm did not
immediately comment on whether
the Snapdragon processor would
also be designed into Samsung's
phones including the upcoming
Galaxy S7. Leaks of the device,
rumored to be announced at the
Mobile World Congress in
Barcelona next month, have
suggested that it could use the
Snapdragon 820.
A chip fabrication deal may not
necessarily translate into
Samsung using the Qualcomm chips
in the Galaxy S7, said Patrick
Moorhead, president and principal
analyst at Moor Insights &
Strategy. Samsung runs their
businesses in a very disconnected
fashion, with its mobile and
semiconductor businesses very
separate, wrote Moorhead in an
email. "Therefore, I don't
believe that the fact the 820 is
built by Samsung increases its
chances of being in the SGS7," he
added.
Qualcomm lost business from
Samsung as the smartphone vendor
decided to use its in-house
Exynos processor rather than the
Snapdragon 810 chip in its
flagship Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6
edge smartphones. Qualcomm said
in April last year that it did
not expect an immediate shift in
its share of components in
Samsung's premium devices and cut
its revenue guidance for 2015.
But a shift could come because
the 820 offers better performance
than the Exynos. "I do believe
Samsung must use the 820 to be
more competitive with Apple. 820
hits performance per watt levels
Exynos just can't hit," Moorhead
said.
Smartphones and other devices
built around chips made with the
new process can also be expected
to be more power-efficient and
faster. Samsung claimed that its
new 14nm LPP process delivers up
to 15 percent higher speed and 15
percent less power consumption
over the previous 14nm LPE (Low-
Power Early) process through
improvements in transistor
structure and process
optimization. Samsung announced
in the first quarter of last year
its Exynos 7 Octa processor built
on the 14nm LPE process.