Stefan Mileschin

The Scottish chipmaker Wolfson Microelectronics rallied by as much as five percent after it emerged that one of its products was being used by Apple.

Wolfson and Apple used to be chums in the early days of the iPod, but as that fad faded, so did the relationship. However, ABI Research, a technology market research firm, pulled apart Apple's new Lightning adapter for the iPhone 5 and found a Wolfson chip.

The Wolfson chip used in Apple's adapter is a simple digital to analogue converter and the company provides something more sophisticated to Apple rival Samsung. According to the FT, Samsung accounted for slightly more than a quarter of Wolfson's revenues in the first half of this year.

If Apple is buying Wolfson chips then it will be a significant revenue opportunity for audio hubs in the future.

Wolfson refused to comment on whether it had signed a new deal with Apple, but then again Apple insists that its suppliers keep quiet.

The Scottish outfit is saying that new customer relationships would normally start with relatively modest projects until confidence is built and the relationship develops. In other words, it sounds like it's expecting Apple to provide it with more work in the future.

Wolfson needs some good news as it is losing money fairly fast and its losses accelerated to $11.1m from $7m year-on-year, as revenues fell.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/scotti...ost-from-apple