With the growing demand for high-quality screens in smartphones, laptops, TVs and even smart cars around the world, its market size continues to rise. At present, the technical strength of domestic OLED manufacturers continues to upgrade, taking BOE as an example, its market share has been further improved, especially the OLED delivery volume has risen by 70%, and apple has also obtained a large order of 30 million OLED screens.
THE COMPANY OLED will supply the iPhone 14
According to foreign media reports on April 22, Apple and Chinese display manufacturer BOE reached an agreement. BOE will provide Apple's iPhone 14 series with a 6.1-inch OLED display, the number of which is 50 million, accounting for about 20%-25% of the total. But that also means the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which will have a larger screen, will still use displays made by LG and Samsung.
According to previous news, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will change the bangs screen that has been used for many years into a hole-digging screen, but the standard version of the iPhone 14 continues to use the bangs screen.
Combined with previous reports, BOE has been supplying the previous generation of panels for sale or maintenance. If the news is accurate, this is also the first time that BOE has supplied panels for the currently sold iPhone.
It is reported that BOE only provides the 6.1-inch panel used by the iPhone 14, and the iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14 Pro series dual machines will still be supplied by LG and Samsung.
In order to meet Apple's needs, BOE plans to build an 8.6-generation OLED display panel production line at the Sichuan B16 factory to supply Apple exclusively. In addition to the mobile phone screen panel, BOE is likely to participate in more Apple device screen panel competition, the future of the new iPad and Macbook, may use BOE OLED screen.
In fact, as early as last November, there was news that BOE was launching a new production plan, its three factories will be transformed into Apple OLED screen production plants, and they have begun to supply OLED screens for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, but the number is not very large, accounting for only about 10% of the total shipments.
According to the annual report, in 2021, BOE flexible OLED smart phone panel annual shipments of about 60 million pieces, an increase of 60% year-on-year, flexible display shipments ranked first in China, and in the global aspect, second only to the "bellwether" Samsung, ranked second.
Domestic OLED screen counterattack: Apple locked in a big order
BOE recently signed a contract with Apple to provide OLED panels for the iPhone 14, which is scheduled to be released in October this year. This means that the share of Samsung displays and LG monitors that provide 100% OLED panels for the iPhone is expected to decrease.
BOE signed an OLED supply contract with Apple earlier this month for the iPhone 14, which will supply OLED panels starting in June. It mainly supplies the 6.1-inch low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) OLED of the iPhone 14 standard version, and is expected to supply up to 50 million units.
Apple's supplier diversification strategy is the reason why BOE supplies OLED panels for the iPhone 14. Apple is dealing with any vendor that implements the technology they need. This is because if the number of suppliers increases, the stability of product supply and demand can be improved, and thus an advantage can be gained in price negotiations with suppliers.
To this end, the industry gave Apple and BOE's evaluation of Samsung Display and LG Display. A head of a domestic display company said that since OLED was first applied to the iPhone X in 2017, Apple has been paying attention to the high proportion of South Korean companies.
However, at present, BOE is still only available for the iPhone 14 general-purpose model, but BOE has begun mass production of LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) TFT OLED this year, and is expected to compete with the Korean factory soon.