Apple Reportedly Taps Samsung And BOE To Produce iPhone OLED Displays
First things first, it’s reported that Samsung has won a secondary $4.3 billion contract to produce OLED screens for the iPhone 8. Samsung has already allegedly been tasked with producing 100 million OLED screens for this year’s launch, but this contract expansion will see Samsung producing an additional 60 million units.
“Samsung Display dominates more than 95 percent of the mobile OLED market,” writes The Investor. “Its compatriot rival LG Display is also beefing up OLED production with aims to supply panels to Apple as a secondary supplier from next year.”
While Samsung is expected to produce the majority of iPhone 8 OLED displays, LG and Sharp are rumored to account for the rest of production. In fact, Sharp CEO Tai Jeng-wu emphatically stated back in October that, "the iPhone has been evolving and now it is switching from LTPS (low-temperature poly-silicon) to OLED panels” and confirmed that his company is adding capacity in Japan to meet the demand for OLED orders.
A separate report from Bloomberg News says that Apple is intent on bringing in Chinese firm BOE Technology Group to supply OLED panels for next year’s iPhone. Apple has reportedly been testing out prototype panels from BOE for the past few months to see if the company meets its quality standards, and if it has the capacity to ramp production to meet the lofty sales numbers of the iPhone family.
The iPhone 8 is rumored to include an edge-to-edge OLED display measuring 5.1- to 5.2-inches in size, and is rumored to have a stainless-steel frame that is sandwiched by glass panels on both the back and front. Wireless charging will be supported, and the smartphone will include a dual-lens camera, A11 processor, and a new Touch ID sensor embedded within the display.
