Tagged: samsung

A small Austin-based technology company, Javelin Semiconductor, has landed its largest contract to date – thanks to a burgeoning relationship between Central Texas and South Korea.

Javelin Semiconductor was picked to produce a power amplifier for Samsung’s new Galaxy S Duos. Robert Wagner, a spokesperson for Javelin, partially credits the company’s continued partnership with Samsung to Austin’s connection to Seoul, South Korea.

“There’s a good relationship in general between Austin companies and Samsung in Korea. So we get some good recognition from the Korean side of Samsung, that we’re this Austin company and they’ve had good success with other local Austin companies like Silicon Labs.”

The Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Susan Davenport agrees. Davenport says that in addition to the success of local companies, the University of Texas has been influential in building Austin’s cluster of technology and talent – which companies like Samsung are now enjoying.  

A lot of thought goes into giving your smartphone a distinctive look and feel, from the shape of the speaker — square, round or oval — to where to put the buttons — side, front or back.

But industrial designers like Robert Brunner say he doesn't have a lot of room to be creative.

"Because you're really being so heavily driven on maintaining a minimal physical size," he says. "So you really get into this very fine envelope of a few millimeters that you have to work with."

Apple. Samsung.

Friends? Enemies? Frenemies?

The nature of the relationship is an important question in Austin, where Samsung recently announced it will spend at least $3 billion retooling its Austin Semiconductor Plant to produce advanced processor chips.

Industry rumors say that a primary purpose of the Austin retooling is to make electronic innards for Apple's iPhones and iPads, though Samsung does not not confirm that. Worldwide, Samsung is the biggest supplier of iPhone and iPad processing chips. In fact, many analysts say that Apple could not produce the iPhone without Samsung.

But how does that cozy relationship fit with a bitter court battle that has raged around the globe?

Samsung will spend between $3 billion and $4 billion over the next year and half to overhaul its Austin manufacturing facility in northeast Austin. The company is converting the factory to build computer processor chips instead of memory chips. Samsung spokesperson Katherine Morse says it will create hundreds of temporary jobs.

“The retrofit of the factory requires a great deal of construction work, preparation work, installing different piping, installing the tools," Morse told KUT News. "There will be a lot of activity out at our facility where we will be using 2,000 to 3,000 contract workers over the next 12 to 18 months.”

The investment is the largest ever made by a foreign company in Texas, according to Bloomberg News, and the facility is likely to build processors for Apple's iPhones and iPads. 

Samsung is also asking the Manor Independent School District to revise its tax incentives.

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Apple's A5 microprocessor, which powers the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, is being made at a $3.6 billion Samsung facility in North Austin, according to a report by Reuters.

Samsung has added about 1,100 jobs to support the new non-memory chip production in the factory, which produces 40,000 silicon wafers every month, a Samsung spokeswoman said.

The report, if confirmed, comes as a surprise because Apple is known mainly for relying on low-cost manufacturers in East Asia.