Apple and Samsung are reportedly in a bit of a tussle over OLED panels, with the former demanding price cuts for this year’s batch. As we all know, the latter is the only supplier of OLED screens for the iPhone X.
There have been rumors that Apple was branching out to LG for at least one of this year’s iPhones, but that’s not known for sure yet. Even if that’s true, Samsung will still be the biggest supplier, with The Bell reporting that it’s producing 100 million displays this year.
25 million is apparently going to be devoted to the current iPhone X for the first half of the year, while the remaining 75 million will be taken up by the 2018 iPhone series in the second half of the year. According to ETNews, production for the new models is set to begin in May starting with 2 to 3 million units before output doubles in June.
Also See: Apple’s working on curved iPhones with touchless gestures
However, Apple and Samsung Display still haven’t settled on a rate yet. Word on the street is that the former paid $110 for each iPhone X to the latter last year, but it wants to pay $100 this year. The South Korean company’s CEO Lee Dong-hoon apparently met with Apple executives on a business trip to the US, but failed to hammer out an agreement.
Samsung used to have the advantage as it was the sole supplier for the iPhone X, but Apple cut orders last year on lower-than-expected demand. This left the panel maker with excess capacity and tepid demand, as Android manufacturers didn’t shift to OLED screens as expected.
As a result, Samsung Display may have no choice but to sell its OLED panels at a lower cost. The question now is if consumers will benefit at the end of the day since Apple may or may not pass on its savings to customers.