TomTom wins thanks to Apple

TomTom share prices rose by 12 per cent to 3.653 euros on Tuesday following the announcement that they had truck a deal with Apple on their new mapping system.

We are unsure exactly of how much TomTom is set to profit from this collaboration, but looks like it has started already and definitely puts them in a prime position against their competitor Garmin who reportedly lost 1.5 million euros in the first quarter.

We are guessing big bucks are involved, and all these upgrades Apple is set to release in their new iPhone due in October is exciting a lot of users. We are keen to see how other mobiles will keep up with all these changes, and how long the queues will be this time round outside the Apples stores worldwide. Do you think the hype will be as it was previous years? We’re not so sure, due to other competitors such as Samsung who are upping their game.

Who are some other brands that have profited greatly from Apple?

1. At&T – For AT&T, the iPhone has been a major hit. The company, for example, had 3.6 million activations of iPhones in just the first three months of 2011, 23 per cent of whom were new.

2. Samsung – (Surprise, Surprise) is the world’s largest maker of memory chips. The South Korean technology giant, which supplies chips and flash drives to Apple, has had a turbulent relationship with Apple in recent years, acting as both a supplier and a competitor in the smartphone and tablet space. Reports suggest that the partnership between the two is worth more than $5 billion.

3. TPK Holdings – the world’s largest touch-panel supplier by volume, with 30 customers in total from the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. The Taiwanese company is the largest supplier of touch panels to Apple for iPads and iPhones.
More than 70 per cent of TPK’s revenues of $1.12 billion in the second quarter of this year came from Apple.

4. Catcher Technology -  one of the Taiwan’s top makers of magnesium and aluminium casings for PCs and handsets. The stock now trades at 17 times earnings on the back of large orders placed by Apple. Citigroup, Macquarie, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have all raised their share-price estimates for Catcher after the firm posted earnings of $82 million from April to June, up 24 precent from the first quarter, and 183 precent from 2010.

5. Toshiba – supplies the LCD panel for the iPhone 3GS, flash drives for the iPhone 4, and is reported to be involved with the Retina display of the iPhone 4. In December, the company announced plans to spend $1.2 billion to build a factory in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture to make small high-resolution LCD panels, mainly to supply Apple’s iPhones. According to the Nikkei business daily, Apple would also invest in the plant.

Looks like any company who partners with Apple is sky rocketing.