China's BOE to supply OLED for iPhone 12: DSCC

Chinese display giant BOE will supply OLED display panels to Apple for the upcoming iPhone 12 series, a market research firm said.

Cupertino will use panels supplied by BOE and LG Display for the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max, Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), said in his most recent blog post. Samsung Display will be the supplier for the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 as well as iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, Young said.

LG Display, however, will supply more panels compared to BOE for the iPhone 12 Max, Young wrote. 

BOE will supply between 5 to 10 million panels and may be chosen as the supplier again for next year’s 5.4-inch iPhone 12S if there is no hitch, he added.

Overall display panel production for the next iPhones will began in late July rather than the initially planned early June, Young wrote, with product launch being postponed from September to October, accordingly. 

Apple’s iPhone 12 launch will be its most successful in years thanks to 5G, OLED with pricing being low as $649, Young estimates.

Samsung Display will supply OLED panels integrated with Y-OCTA touch for iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Meanwhile, panels by LG Display and BOE for iPhone 12 Max and iPhone 12 will instead have add-on touch sensors.

BOE's clinching of the supply deal will likely come as a surprise to South Korean component makers.

As iPhone’s development period is around a year, sources within the companies previously told TheElec that they don’t expect BOE to be chosen as a supplier due to the tight deadline.

Even if BOE was chosen as a supplier, they said they expected the Chinese vendors to supply display panels for refurbished iPhones after initial sales.

Adding BOE as a supplier will allow Apple to reduce its reliance on Samsung Display as well as reduce cost in the long-run.