Apple Ties To Samsung In Sharp Contrast To Courtroom Clash

Whatever the jury decides at the end of Apple-Samsung trial, Apple’s deep ties to Samsung are becoming more apparent even as the two companies clash in court.

Apple’s reliance on Samsung chips for its best-selling phones and tablets will be worth as much as $7.5 billion to Samsung this year, a 60 percent jump from 2011, Gartner estimates. Because Apple would struggle to find an alternate supplier for the main processor in its mobile devices, the computer maker can’t quit buying from its competitor anytime soon, whatever the trial’s outcome. “As much as these companies go head to head, there’s a definite intertwining there that makes it a real ugly divorce if it were to take place,” said Len Jelinek, an analyst at market researcher IHS Inc. “Apple cannot, under any circumstances, be caught in a capacity-crunch situation.”