However, now that Samsung has begun competing with Apple in the mobile space, the relationship has become a bit strained.Samsung's devices, such as the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, are often purported to be the biggest competitors to Apple's products. Unsurprisingly, Apple is not very happy about that.
In fact, Apple recently launched full-scale legal campaign against Samsung for infringement of the iPhone 3GS. Samsung responded with its own lawsuits against Apple.
Apparently Apple has now had enough, as the company is now planning to cut Samsung from its supply chain in favor of the Tiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. A move like this has the potential to be problematic for Apple, because Samsung helped design the A5 CPU and holds many key patents on it.
Nevertheless, Apple will probably still push froward with the switch, if only to keep from supporting a company that is directly competing with it in the mobile market.
[Daily Tech]