In a disclosure which apparently is an indication that Apple is looking to diversify its memory chip supply lines, a Friday report from Reuters - citing an unnamed `inside' source - said that Apple has slashed its orders for the new iPhone's memory chips from Samsung Electronics, the company's leading supplier as well as smartphone-market rival.

According to the information shared by the Reuters' sources, even though Samsung will still remain on the list of initial suppliers for Apple's new iPhone, the cut back in the order for memory chips underscores Apple's move in the direction of diversifying its supply lines for the iPhone component.

About Apple having cut memory chip orders to Samsung, the Reuters source said: "Apple orders have been trending down and Samsung is making up for the reduced order from others, notably Samsung's handset business."

Meanwhile, the Korea Economic Daily also reported - on the basis of information gained from an unidentified industry source - on Friday that Samsung has probably been dropped from Apple's list of memory chip suppliers for the first set of the next-generation iPhone, which will likely be announced by the company at a September 12 event.

Despite the fact that Samsung has been the foremost supplier of memory chips - both dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND memory chips - for Apple's popular devices, the Korea Economic Daily report has revealed that Apple has chosen Toshiba, Elpida Memory, and SK Hynix for supplying DRAM and NAND chips.