BOE to supply up to 10% of OLED used in iPhones this year

BOE is expected to supply over 15 million units of OLED panels to Apple for iPhones, TheElec has learned.

The Chinese display giant is currently supplying OLED panels for iPhone 12 __ the company will likely receive the final approval from Apple to supply OLED panels for the recently launched iPhone 13 series, sources in Cupertion’s supply chain said.

One source said that “time was on BOE’s side”. 

The over 15 million units takes into account supply for refurbished iPhone 12, new iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, they said.

If achieved, it will the unit shipment will be equal to around 10% of the total OLED panels used by Apple for its iPhones this year, they said.

Last month, BOE received conditional approval to supply OLED panels for iPhone 13.

The company, following the conditional approval, is currently manufacturing OLED panels for the iPhone 13 series at its B11 production line in Sichuan Province in China.

BOE will start full-scale production once Apple gives the final approval this month, which is highly likely.

The company had supplied around 6 million units of OLED panels for iPhone 12 during the first half of the year __ as of October, the company is expected to have in total supplied 10 million units.

BOE is currently manufacturing between a million units to 1.5 million units of OLED panels for iPhone 12 per month.

The company is aiming to supply up to 5 million units of OLED panels for the iPhone 13 before the year’s end __ however, the company’s suppliers believe early-2 million units its more realistic at most.

Apple is expected to move 120 million units to 140 million units of the iPhone 13 series for a year after it launched, according to analysts firms.

Cupertino is likely behind BOE’s faster entrance to its OLED panel supply chain. Apple had held monthly approval processes for the Chinese company. BOE had continued to fail to meet the iPhone maker’s quality standard but the approval processes continued, showing Apple’s drive to have BOE as a supplier. Monthly approval processes allow the Chinese company to receive continuous feedback to resolve any issues with its panels.

Apple is also planning to use low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) for the OLED panel on one of four planned iPhones that it will launch next year, BOE can only manufacture LTPS TFT OLED panels as of now.

The two Pro models next year will use low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) TFT OLED panels as it did for the two higher-tier models for iPhone 13, which is solely provided by Samsung Display.

Apple is yet to decide which OLED tech to apply to one remaining phone launching next year.

BOE will likely continue to supply its 6.06-inch OLED panels for the iPhone next year, as it does for iPhone 12 and is about to for iPhone 13.

LG Display is also gearing up to supply LTPO TFT OLED panels next year.