Apple has reportedly cut the number of memory chips it has on order for its new iPhone from Samsung, its biggest supplier and the biggest reason it’s in court all the time trying to stop the Korean company from ripping off its iPhone and iPad widgetry.

Everybody’s been wondering when this would start happening.

Reuters said Friday that it got the tip from a “source with direct knowledge of the matter” who denies it has anything to do with the companies’ worldwide litigation and said Apple was just looking for secondary sources to relieve the supply crunch that happens with a new product. Hmmm.

The suddenly excess chips Samsung’s left with are reportedly going into its rival widgets.

The news wire says “Apple has been cutting its orders from Samsung as it tries to diversify its lines of supply for memory chips, although the South Korean firm remains on the list of initial suppliers for the new iPhone.”

The Korea Economic Daily, however, suggests that Apple dropped Samsung from its primary list of memory chip suppliers for the first batch of new iPhones, expected to be announced September 12, and went to Toshiba, Elpida Memory and SK Hynix for DRAM and NAND chips instead.

Reuters’ source claims Samsung is still a preferred Apple supplier but the orders it’s getting are shrinking.

Florian Mueller, author of the FOSS Patents blog, observes that supply contracts are long-team deals that aren’t easily canceled nor can the companies’ relationship be strained too much without Apple having a reliable safety net.