Apple has struck a deal worth $4.3 billion with Samsung’s subsidiary unit Samsung Display to supply an additional 60 million OLED panels for the upcoming iPhone, according to a report by a S. Korean English daily The Korea Herald.
The Korean display firm had last year signed a deal with the Cupertino-based tech giant for supplying 100 million OLED panels for the iPhone 8, and now the two firms have signed a fresh deal for another 60 million supplies.
Since Apple sells 200 million units of its iPhone flagship in a year, the total 160 million units of iPhone, featuring an OLED display, will make up almost 80 per cent of the entire sales.
The next-generation iPhone, expected to be called iPhone 8, will be the first ever iPhone to feature an OLED display.
Apple is rumoured to bring in two or three variants of the new iPhone this year, however, only premium models are likely to feature the OLED display, while the rest still continue to include LCD display.
The supply constraints may only allow Apple to bring OLED in just one variant of the next iPhone, not more than that. In an earlier report, KGI analyst Ming-Chi-Kuo also cited that some new Apple iPhone may continue to feature LCD display because there won’t be enough OLED displays to satisfy the increasing demand.
The OLED displays are difficult to produce and the four largest suppliers—Samsung Display, LG Display, Sharp and Japan Display lacks production capacity to make OLED screens for all new iPhones.
Although, Samsung Display dominated the OLED market for supplying, LG Display is also working towards serving as a secondary supplier to Apple.
