Apple, Samsung–-and TSMC

choi

Assif Shameen, Apple, Samsung–-and TSMC; The Taiwanese chip maker wins no matter who prevails in the smartphone and tablet markets. Barron's, Feb 9, 2013.
http://online.barrons.com/articl ... 84082063766540.html

My comment:
(a) Barron's (newspaper)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barron%27s_(newspaper)
(a weekly; published by Dow Jones & Company since 1921; named after Clarence W Barron, one of the most influential figures in the history of Dow Jones, and considered the founder of modern financial journalism
(b) Clarence W Barron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_W._Barron
(1855-1928; a Bostonian; in 1903, he purchased Dow Jones & Company for $130,000, following the death of co-founder Charles Dow)
(c) Regarding the English and Scottish surname Barron (from Middle English/ Old French "baron"). "As a surname it is unlikely to be a status name denoting a person of rank. The great baronial families of Europe had distinctive surnames of their own. Generally, the surname referred to service in a baronial household."
(c) In the PC era, Intel and Microsoft in particular donimated. (Intel's memory chip business was eclipsed in early 1980s by Japanese, which in turn were overtaken by Koreans.) Economics of diruptive technology dictates the their fall and the rise of mobile devices (exemplified by Apple, ARM etc).
(d) A recent book posed a rhetoric question: Which came first? Stir fry or wok? The book then answered: simultaneously. The same can be said about mobile devices and ARM chips.
(e) MediaTek's annual revenue of T$99.3bn (about $3.3bn) is miniscule in the grand scheme of things. Still, being a design house MediaTek relies on foundries.
(f) Samsung is vertically integrated; it makes its own memory chips and microprocessors, for an array of electronic products. Nonetheless, Samsung is not known to produce chips in the categories controlled by Broadcomm and Qualcomm. So, in this vein, TSMC may be truly said to "wins no matter who prevails"--Apple or Samsung.