Apple “Cutting Corners” or Good Business?

I find it interesting that some people here in Korea are criticizing Apple for “cutting corners” with the new Apple iPod-nano:

Korean MP3 player makers are miffed by the release of a new product by world market leader Apple that they say is cutting corners by using Samsung Electronics flash memory chips.
Apple Computer unveiled its ultra-lightweight i-Pod nano flash memory player on Thursday (local time). The U.S. company holds 50 percent of the global market share with its iPod series.

The domestic MP3 player industry is sulking, saying the iPod nano owes its exceptionally low price to Samsung Electronics. “Memory chips affect more than 50 percent of MP3 players’ prices. Apple presumably bought the flash memory chips at a 50 percent discount from Samsung.” But Samsung Electronics executive Joo Woo-sik defends the company. “I can’t tell you the discount rate, but it stands to reason that we expand the range of discount rates for a big buyer like Apple,” he said. “Samsung didn’t mean to do any harm to domestic MP3 manufacturers.”

It sounds like to me that Apple is conducting good business in acquiring parts for their new product at the lowest price possible. Also, Samsung must be making a hefty profit on this massive bulk order of memory chips or they wouldn’t have given Apple a discount. If Korean MP3 manufacturers want they same discount then they should order the same amount of memory chips as Apple.

Obviously the Korean MP3 manufacturers must feel they can’t compete with Apple’s new product so they have to slime Apple and Samsung and stoke Korean pride about unfair trade practices. As long as Samsung is making money I don’t foresee the company raising its memory chip prices due to complaints from Korean MP3 manufacturers. Money speaks louder than words.