Apple Has a New Friend in Its Adventure for a Samsung-Free iPhone

Apple has been trying to reduce reliance on rival Samsung for several years already, and if a recent report is anything to go by, the Cupertino-based tech giant is ready to make another step in this regard with the 2020 iPhone generation.

BOE could join Samsung and LG Display as iPhone OLED panel suppliers starting as soon as next year, according to Korean media, and this move is a double win for Apple.

First and foremost, the company expands the list of suppliers that it relies on for the iPhone, which means that supply constraints are less likely. And second of all, signing BOE means Apple can count less on Samsung, the long-time South Korean rivals which right now supplies most of the iPhone displays, but at the same time, also competes against the iPhone with its very own lineup of Android flagship devices.

All in on OLED

BOE joining the group of suppliers for iPhone OLEDs isn’t necessarily surprising, as the company manufactures iPad and MacBook LCD screens since 2017. Expanding to OLED can fuel BOE’s growth as well, especially after it teamed up with Huawei last year for the production of OLED panels to be used on the Mate 20.

According to today’s report, BOE will manufacture some 45 million flexible OLED panels for the iPhone next year, while Samsung’s output for the Cupertino-based tech giant would drop from 230 million units to 150 million units. This is without a doubt quite a loss for Samsung, with Apple also counting on LG Display for supplying another 26 million panels for the iPhone.

Apple’s fall 2020 iPhone lineup will include OLED models exclusively – another LCD iPhone is projected to land in the spring as the second-generation iPhone SE. However, the successor to the iPhone 11, which currently uses LCD, will also make the switch to OLED.