It appears to be an "S" year for the iPhone, in which Apple will release a more robust version of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. If reports are true, Samsung will help put the "S" in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Samsung is coming off a rocky year, in which it stepped up its investments in its foundry business only to see one of its biggest customers look elsewhere. Apple, which has relied heavily on Samsung for processors, turned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to handle the bulk of the work.
Apple is now turning back to its rival to produce the next iPhone's processor, the Apple A9, reported Bloomberg, citing "people with direct knowledge of the matter," although those people have asked to remain anonymous.
Samsung will produce the Apple A9 processors at its Giheung facility in South Korea, while Globalfoundries, the Galaxy maker's partner, will fulfill additional orders, according to the report.
While Apple may have wanted to hit rival Samsung in the pockets by turning to TSMC, the two competitors have been working jointly to develop a 14nm design that would lead the industry. When Samsung started mass production of the 14nm design, it was believed to have held the edge over TSMC and its 16nm technology in winning the bid for the next Apple processor.
If Samsung can bring Globalfoundries up to speed on the 14nm technology, the foundry, along with Samsung, could win huge bids to produce processors for Qualcomm in addition to Apple, according to Song Myung Sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.
Along with 2015 looking like it will welcome the "S" version of Apple's latest iPhone series, there have been reports suggesting that Cupertino will release a "C" variant of the handset that will feature a 4-inch display.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI, has gone against those reports and stated that Apple won't release an iPhone 6c this year. 9to5Mac points out that Kuo's report may be in fact true right now, but there's still plenty of time for Apple to reverse course and release an iPhone 6c.
The next iPhone may not have an "S" tagged to its name, according to Kuo. With Apple preparing to update its Force Touch technology, so that it senses how much of a user's finger is contacting a display, the next iPhone will be the iPhone 7, Kuo asserts.
