The latest potential suppliers of Apple’s iPhone OLED screens have changed, reported Korea Herald.
Based on recent news, Samsung has secured the supply to Apple with 100 million OLED panels per year by signing a deal, which the Korean display giant will start supplying from the second quarter of 2017 over the following three years.
At the current stage, Samsung is the sole manufacturer that meets the Cupertino-based giant’s demanding product requirement. However, as Apple tends to secure a number of suppliers at the same time, other display makers include LG could get a fraction of the orders, said Lee Choong-hoon, president and chief analyst of UBI Research at a seminar on May 13.
It’s projected that OLED iPhone with bendable screen is likely to debut in 2018, said Lee. Meanwhile, OLED models would account 30% or 100 million units of total iPhone shipment in 2018 and that the amount could rush to 80% within two years. Apple could outweigh Samsun in OLED adoption by 2021.
Up to 70% of Samsung’s smartphones use OLED screen, including flagship Galaxy S series to mid and low-end models.
It’s speculated that Samsung’s slowing sale in smartphones urges the Korean manufacturer to supply OLED panels to Apple, added Lee. It’s predicted that iPhone’s OLED supplied by Samsung and LG separately account for 60% and 20% to 30% of the total orders. Other suppliers include Japan Display and Foxconn are also included as secondary suppliers.
Lee doubted the probability of a Chinese manufacturer on the OLED supplier list for iPhone within a short time. Chinese OLED manufacturers’ technological capacities and supply chains are far behind that of Korean and Japanese competitors, said Lee.
However, Chinese makers has shown great interest in gaining iPhone orders. Foxconn recently completed the purchase of a key OLED production system that are known to have limited supply, according to industry insiders.
While some believe that Chinese makers wouldn’t become one of the OLED secondary suppliers, some other analysts have opposite views.
Lee Woon-keun, a senior analyst at LG Economic Research Institute noted that Chinese government has invested heavily in the display industry and that the manufacturers are rapidly improving in quality while rapidly expanding in scale. In other words, it’s possible that Chinese makers would catch up with pouring investment from its government.