That is a great way to damage Samsung for Apple. Initially contracting them with a very high-volume and then dropping off to zero. Samsung will make a huge net-loss, if they don't partner up with Microsoft(=Nokia now) or Google in another big deal.

Samsung is actually having trouble meeting their own internal demand for components. IIRC, they were even getting memory from arch-rival Hynix at some point this year. Having Apple dial back might not be such a bad thing for Samsung if it helps sort out their internal supply chain.

Samsung has long sourced externally for parts. Despite being (one of?) the worlds biggest LCD panel vendors many of their TVs had non-Samsung panels in them at least a few years ago. It was particularly the mid-low ranges.

Their Galaxy S4 in the US uses a Qualcomm CPU...

They use Qualcomm anywhere they need LTE, as nobody else has that properly sorted.

Qualcomm CPU, not just Qualcomm LTE module.

Not true, contract component manufacturing made only 7% of Samsung profits last year. The value of the Samsung branded smartphones they ship out is by far their most important financial metric.

It's just business. The same thing happened when Apple switched from PortalPlayer to Samsung; their stock tanked and they were bought by Nvidia.

I thought upvotes and downvotes are for moderation. It's so childish to downvote someone just because you're not of the same opinion.

I don't think Apple is as interested in being punitive (though some of it might be that) as they are in diversifying supply sources. It's probably unlikely that TSMC will exclusively build them right away, but Apple may shift more over to them if they do a good job.