Samsung’s OLED Display Monopoly

Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors:

In a new research note shared with investors this morning, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says OLED iPhone panel supply is “controlled wholly by Samsung,” with Samsung likely charging Apple $120 to $130 per OLED panel module, which is approximately $75 more than the 5.5-inch LCD module price of $45 to $55 for “Plus” sized iPhones.

It really is quite fascinating that Apple is reliant upon Samsung — their arch-rival in the phone business — for anything at all, let alone for the most essential and expensive components in iPhones. With chip manufacturing, Apple moved from reliance upon Samsung for chips like the A7 to a mixture of Samsung and TSMC for future chips.

As Kuo’s report notes, Apple is moving aggressively to help LG become an OLED supplier for iPhones in 2018 and later. But this year, it sounds like D22’s OLED displays are solely supplied by Samsung. That cannot sit well with Apple. First, it’s never a good position to be reliant on just one company. Second, it’s even worse when that company is your biggest rival in the consumer phone market. And third, there’s a history of bad blood between the two companies. Apple just doesn’t like Samsung.

★ Wednesday, 6 September 2017