Tech Shout!

Samsung has won the lucrative contract, out beating music chip-maker PortalPlayer to acquire the contract for the forthcoming Flash-based iPods, the electronics giant announced.

A SpokesSamsung said it will be providing the MP3 media processor business for Apple’s next-generation iPods. The outfit already provides the NAND flash memory chips for the iPod.

Speaking at the SEMI Strategic Business Conference yesterday, the head of technical marketing at the US division of Samsung’s chip

making division, Jon Kang, said: “I knew PortalPlayer would take a dive… I knew that we would win this design.

EETimes reports that Kang said, “We’ve been working with Apple a long time,” adding, “It’s a huge win for us.”

The new chip was said by Kang to be a 32-bit ARM-based design, apparently offering music decoding, a photo display capability, possibly video playback and support for the various peripheral devices the iPod uses: screen, battery, USB, clickwheel controller.

Getting as many of these features onto as few chips as possible is essential in order to get the manufacturing cost of the iPod family down, boosting Apple’s profitability and/or making the players’ prices more competitive.

PortalPlayer announced last week Apple would not be using the company’s next-generation part “in their mid-range and high-end Flash-based iPods”.