Yesterday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung to Kick-Off 2017 with the World's First 10nm CPU Powering their Galaxy S8." In that report we noted that the Korean source had hyped-up Samsung's victory by stating that Industry analysts are now "predicting that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce new Exynos series, which is its own AP, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 series (835) through 10-nano logic process." Today we learn that may have been a hasty presumption on their part because Qualcomm may have other plans on the table.

We noted in yesterday's report that Apple passed on delivering a 10nm A10 processor for this year and reported earlier that the 2017 A11 was set for a 10nm using a FinFET process. At the same time, TSMC was on schedule with their 10nm processor by the end of this year.

Today news has surfaced from Chinese-language Economic Daily News claiming that "Qualcomm is likely to switch follow-up orders for its Snapdragon 830 chips to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in 2017 as production of the 10nm chips at current maker Samsung LSI has reportedly fallen behind schedule."

The report further noted that "A possible delay in the production of the Snapdragon 830 chips is suspected as most Android smartphone vendors have not yet received qualified samples, which are needed for the development and production of high-end models to be showcased or released in early 2017.

Smartphone vendors, including Samsung Electronics, HTC, Asustek Computer, Xiaomi Technology, Sony Mobile Communications, LG Electronics, Oppo and Vivo, have been using Qualcomm's 8-series family products for their high-end models.

Any possible delay in the production of the Snapdragon 830 chips will affect the sales performance of a number of Android smartphone vendors and parts suppliers in the first quarter of 2017."

Qualcomm switching their Snapdragon chip orders to TSMC just as Samsung is struggling to deal with the Note7 crisis could have a disastrous ripple effect throughout Samsung and their bottom line for some time to come.

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Side Note: A new report surfaced two days later, Oct 21, hinting that the switch was likely to be for future 7nm processors and not 10nm. Because this twist isn't being reported elsewhere, we're posting this update as a Side Note and not an update to our report.