TECH NEWS – The current manufacturer is unable to keep up with demand, so the Cupertino-based tech giant is looking to partner with another company.

After BOE‘s technical problems disrupted the usual iPhone production schedule, Apple placed an order for millions of OLED panels with Samsung to avoid further disruptions. According to The Elec in South Korea, manufacturing issues at BOE have disrupted Apple‘s usual iPhone production pace over the past two months, prompting the company to transfer its OLED panel orders to Samsung. It appears that Samsung has acquired approximately half of BOE‘s OLED panel orders from Apple. BOE supplied Apple with approximately 40 million display panels in 2024, corresponding to a monthly production rate of about 3 million units.

More concerning is that BOE is reportedly having manufacturing issues with the current generation of low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) OLED panels for the iPhone 17 and with older generations of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) OLED panels for the iPhone 17e and several older models, including the iPhone 13 (2021), iPhone 14 (2022), iPhone 15 (2023), iPhone 16 (2024), and iPhone 16e (2025). This is concerning, especially since BOE‘s panel yield for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 remained stable last year, suggesting a new production issue in the company’s manufacturing process.

Apple selected BOE as the primary supplier of OLED panels for the iPhone 17e. However, due to recent manufacturing delays, Samsung is likely to supply the panels for Apple‘s next lower-priced product. BOE is no longer able to meet Apple‘s strict requirements for the iPhone 17 OLED panels. Under the original agreement, Apple expected BOE to supply approximately 10 million LTPO OLED panels for the iPhone 17.

This comes after Samsung Display recently won a significant legal victory against BOE, which was found guilty of stealing Samsung‘s OLED technology. Samsung sued BOE before the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2023, alleging that BOE had imported OLED products into the US that were manufactured using Samsung‘s proprietary trade secrets.

Source: WCCFTech, The Elec