Apple Forced to Swallow Samsung’s 20% Price Hike

The bad blood between Apple and Samsung is evidently getting worse. Samsung recently hiked the price of the so-called application processors it builds for Apple’s widgets by a hefty 20%, according to the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, quoting a story Monday in the Korean-language paper Chosun Ilbo, which in turn cites a person familiar with the negotiations between the two companies. Apple is the only Samsung customer affected by the price increase. Apple’s problem is Samsung’s its sole source. Apple reportedly looked around but couldn’t find a replacement. Apple bought roughly 130 million of the gismos from Samsung last year and more than 200 million this year for its iPads and iPhones. The contract runs until 2014. Apple is expected to bring the effort in-house by then but ensure that the widgets are backward-compatible.

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