Apple has apparently signed a deal with Samsung Display, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, to build an additional 60 million organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for iPhone 8, The Korea Herald newspaper reported Monday. The deal is worth five trillion Korean won, or about a $4.3 billion.
The deal is in addition to an agreement that Apple and Samsung signed last year to supply 100 million OLED display panels for iPhone 8.
Apple sells about 200 million iPhones per year so the combined 160 million units of Samsung-built OLED panels will make up 80 percent of the entire sales. Samsung Display is the world’s top OLED producer, accounting for more than 95 percent of the world’s supply of OLED panels for smartphones and tablets.
The all-new OLED-based iPhone 8 should launch in September alongside the more iterative LCD-based updates to the existing iPhone 7 family in the form of the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus devices. However, with the increased panel supply Apple might be able to outfit all three iPhone models coming this year with OLED screens.
Prior rumors claimed other firms would be joining Apple’s OLED supply chain in 2018, including Foxconn-owned Sharp, LG Display and Japan Display.
Source: The Korea Herald
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