The Apple logo is pictured at a retail store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California
IN PHOTO: The Apple logo is pictured at a retail store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 23, 2014. REUTERS

In time for the iPhone 7 release date in the second half of 2015, Samsung will reportedly become a close Apple manufacturing partner anew with the South Korean tech giant set to supply the bulk of A9 chips for the next iPhone.

"Samsung Electronics has taken the majority of Apple's iPhone chip orders for 2015," DigiTimes said in a new report.

Samsung edged out chief rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as the former pushed forward an irresistible offer - lower price for the A9 application processor that will make use of the 14nm FinFET process production, the report added.

The latest news backs the earlier reports that Apple and Samsung have practically closed a deal that will see the latter supplying up to 80 per cent of the former's processing chip requirements, mostly for smartphone use, starting in late 2015.

TSMC corners 2015 iPad A9 chips

Despite the seemingly increasing role that Samsung will play in Apple's iOS device supply chain, TSMC is hardly marginalized as DigiTimes clarified that following its dominance in the manufacture of A8 chips that power the iPhone 6, 6 Plus and the 2014 iPads the Taiwanese chipmaker will largely retain its lucrative deals with Apple.

Specifically, TSMC will be the sole supplier of the A9 processors for the iPad Air 3 and its other tablet siblings.

"TSMC is believed to have grabbed the entire A9 chip orders for use in Apple's next iPad devices," DigiTimes said on its report, citing unnamed industry insiders.

And as mentioned, Apple will also tap TSMC for the balance of the A9 chips that will be packed with the next iPhone in 2015.

More Apple contracts for Samsung

In a related development, G4Games is claiming that Samsung is set to seal more contracts from Apple - one of which is to supply the high-capacity NAND flash drive being used on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple is rumoured to shift from TLC NAND to MLC due to numerous reports of frequent crashes and reboots that affect the 64GB and 128GB new iPhones. It appears that Samsung will come to Apple's aid in order to fix the device bug and more.

Samsung is also set to deliver batteries for the iPhone 6 and likely the succeeding models plus the application processor for the soon-to-launch Apple Watch, the G4Games report added.

The iPhone 7 release date is expected in the second half of 2015 with September seen as the earliest touchdown month.