According to reports from South Korea, China’s BOE will supply OLED screens for next year’s iPhone.
BOE’s OLED screen will set off a “Chicken Game” against Samsung from 2020 to 2021. BOE’s biggest challenge to Samsung may be in Apple orders. Once the yield reaches Apple’s requirements, BOE will lock in the iPhone supplier’s place, starting as soon as 2020.
South Korean analysts even predict that in 2021, BOE will ship 45 million OLED panels for the iPhone. Of course, Samsung will still keep the bulk of iPhone orders, but its orders will drop from 230 million last year to 150 million.
MacDailyNews Take: Back in August, Apple was said to be in the final stages of certifying OLED screens from China’s BOE Technology Group for iPhones next year, as Apple continues to look to cut component costs and reduce over-reliance on Samsung Electronics to provide OLED screens.
Adding BOE, which also makes LCDs for Apple’s MacBook and iPad families, will provide some competition for Samsung Display which currently has over 90% share of the OLED market, and allow Apple to drive down costs for the iPhone’s most expensive component. Sources told Nikkei that BOE-made OLED displays could potentially undercut Samsung Display by some 20% which will ratchet up competitive pressure among Apple suppliers which is always a good thing for Apple their customers, not to mention shareholders.
Big Mistake Apple!
Wrong country for something that is done by machines.
Machines, or not…a 20% discount is kind of hard to pass up. It’ll also give the Chinese another opportunity to get some IP….which I’d vote to pass up.