Samsung and Apple Team Up Against Qualcomm

You read that headline right, although the "team up" part might have been a bit overstated! But you can't really blame me for my excitement, given the two company's historic rivalry and court contests. In a seemingly strange turn of events, it looks like Samsung is backing Apple in their ongoing legal battle with Qualcomm. Samsung is not alone in making its support towards Apple's case public though, because Intel too is onboard this "alliance." But then again, Intel does have a very big stake in the matter as well.

Apple had sued Qualcomm for $1 billion with support from the Federal Trade commission, in accusation that the chipmaker is using its position in the US market to force Apple into paying very high and unreasonable patent royalties for their baseband processor. As expected, Qualcomm sued them back by launching another lawsuit in return, which stated that Apple is not making payments that they are supposed to, as per previous agreements. Since Qualcomm is now trying ban Apple from selling and importing any iPhone that doesn't run on a Qualcomm affiliated chip, Samsung and Intel are trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Given that Apple is now buying chips from Intel, while Samsung and Qualcomm are no longer partners, this move actually makes sense.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)