As Apple and Samsung continue to battle over patents and product design, Samsung seems to be positioned to take the biggest hit. Seems Apple has open it’s wallet to other people and intend to shut it for Samsung. Samsung has already had its tablet blocked in multiple regions and Apple is digging deeper. Apple was expected to make roughly $7.8 billion in component purchases from Samsung in 2011. That may not be the case any more. That relationship is now in jeopardy. DigiTimes on Thursday reported that Apple is looking in other places for mobile memory chips as well.
Apple has secured two new suppliers for its DRAM and NAND flash chips. Japan-based Toshiba and Elpida Memory have received increased orders. Toshiba will supply Apple with NAND flash chips while Elpida will supply mobile RAM. It is unknown if Samsung who is the world’s leading supplier of both NAND flash memory and DRAM chips will keep any of Apple’s mobile memory business.