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The problems faced by tertiary Apple display supplier BOE appear to have gone from bad to worse, according to a new report. The company is now in danger of losing all orders for the iPhone 14.

Too many of the company’s displays were failing to pass quality control checks, and BOE reportedly tried to solve this by quietly changing the specs – without telling Apple …

Chinese display manufacturer BOE was only ever third-placed in Apple’s supply chain, behind Samsung and LG, but was still hoping to make as many as 40M OLED screens this year for a range of iPhone models.

The biggest issue is not with CPUs and GPUs, but far more mundane chips like display drivers and power management systems. These relatively low-tech chips are used in a huge number of devices, including Apple ones.

Yield rates are always a challenge for Apple suppliers, as the company’s specs are often tighter than those set by other smartphone makers. Even Samsung Display, which has the most-advanced OLED manufacturing capabilities, has at times had yield rates as low as 60% for iPhone displays.

The company was caught having changed the circuit width of the thin film transistors on the OLED panels it made for iPhone 13 earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said.

The Chinese display panel sent a C-level executive and employees to Apple’s headquarters following the incident to explain why they changed the circuit width of the transistors.

They also asked the iPhone maker to approve the production of OLED panels for iPhone 14, but didn’t receive a clear response from Apple, they also said.

Cupertino seems poised to give the order for around 30 million OLED panels it intended to give BOE before the incident to Samsung Display and LG Display instead.

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Apple tasked BOE with making iPhone 13 displays last October, a short-lived deal that ended earlier this month when Apple reportedly caught BOE changing the circuit width of the iPhone 13’s display’s thin-film transistors without Apple’s knowledge. (Did they really think Apple wouldn’t notice?).

This decision could continue to haunt BOE, however, as Apple may take the company off the job of making the OLED display for the iPhone 14 as well. According to The Elec, BOE sent an executive to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters to explain the incident and says it didn’t receive an order to make iPhone 14 displays. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 14 at an event this fall, but The Elec says production for its display could start as soon as next month.

In place of BOE, The Elec expects Apple to split the 30 million display order between LG Display and Samsung Display, its two primary display providers. Samsung will likely produce the 6.1 and 6.7-inch displays for the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro, while LG is set to make the 6.7-inch display for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

According to MacRumors, BOE previously only manufactured screens for refurbished iPhones. Apple later hired the company to supply OLED displays for the new iPhone 12 in 2020, but its first batch of panels failed to pass Apple’s rigorous quality control tests. Since the beginning of this year, BOE’s output has also been affected by a display driver chip shortage.

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While Samsung will continue to supply approximately 80 per cent of iPhone displays, rumours claim that a little-known company called BOE looks set to become Apple’s second-largest OLED supplier. Not only is this a sign that Apple’s lowest-cost iPhone 12 model will likely make the leap from LCD to OLED this year, but it’s also a sign that Apple is looking to diversify which manufacturers it uses, and potentially looking to ready itself for a move into the display market itself.

The company, which was founded in Bejing in 1993 and acquired SK Hynix"s STN-LCD and OLED businesses back in 2001, is ranked second in the world when it comes to flexible OLED shipments, holding a market share of 11 per cent during the first quarter of this year. It, naturally, is still a long way behind market leader Samsung, which owned 81 per cent market share of the OLED market in the same quarter. Still, with a sizable chunk of the OLED market already under its belt, it perhaps won’t come as too much of a surprise – now, at least – that the firm already has some big-name allies.

BOE’s surprising alliance with Apple isn’t the only time the two companies have worked together, either; the Chinese manufacturer already makes LCD screens for Apple"s older iPhones, and its tiny OLED panels are currently used in some Apple Watch models. It’s unclear how much BOE and Apple’s latest deal is worth, but it’s likely in the billions. According to online reports, Samsung’s deal with the iPhone maker is thought to be worth around $20 billion annually, so if BOE manages to secure 20 per cent of Apple’s display orders going forward, such a deal could be worth as much as $4bn.

Although BOE has managed to muscle its way into Apple’s exclusive list of OLED suppliers, and has invested heavily in facilities and equipment in order to meet the firm’s demands, the new partnership hasn’t got off to a flying start. According to reports, the company’s flexible OLED panels have not yet passed Apple’s final validation. This means, according to rumours, that BOE’s screens might not show up in the first batch of iPhone 12 models, and will instead start shipping on handsets at the beginning of 2021, with Apple instead set to re-increase its reliance on LG in the short term.

Scenarios like this, along with the fact that Apple is clearly looking to lessen its reliance on big-name display makers, makes us think that it won’t be long until the company ultimately stops relying on others altogether; after all, it’s no secret that Apple wants to control every aspect of its hardware development.

The display market could be Apple’s next target. Not only does the company already manufacturer screen technology in the form of its Pro Display XDR, but a recent Bloomberg report claims that Apple is “designing and producing its own device displays” and is making a “significant investment” in MicroLED panels. This technology utilises newer light-emitting compounds that make them brighter, thinner and less power-intense than the current OLED displays.

Apple’s efforts in MicroLED are reportedly in the “advanced stages”; the company has applied for more than 30 patents, and recent rumours suggest the firm is also considering investing over $330 million in a secretive MicroLED factory with the goal of bringing the technology to its future devices.

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“China’s BOE will become the largest display supplier for Apple’s iPhone in 2023,” said Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst at TF International Security in Taiwan.

BOE is expected to account for about 70 percent of the OLED panel supply for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which are scheduled to hit shelves in the second half of this year, according to Kuo. Samsung Display, which accounted for 70 percent of the displays for the iPhone 14, is expected to see its share drop to 30 percent.

In particular, Kuo predicted that BOE may supply 20 percent to 30 percent of the low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) panels for Apple’s next-generation iPhone (iPhone 16) in 2024. If BOE is awarded 20 percent to 30 percent of the display orders for the iPhone 16 following 70 percent of the display supply for the iPhone 15, it will emerge as Apple’s largest display supplier, beating Samsung Display and LG Display.

Chinese companies including BOE are in hot pursuit of Korean companies in the world OLED display industry. In the small OLED display market, Samsung Display took the top spot in the second quarter of 2022 with a 38.2 percent market share against BOE"s 20.5 percent, according to UBI Research, a market research company. LG Display maintains its lead in large OLED display panels, mainly used for TVs.

So far, Korean display makers have been ahead of their Chinese competitors based on technological leadership. But a situation in which Chinese companies have eroded Korean display makers’ market share in the liquid crystal display (LCD) market is repeating in the OLED display market. Chinese companies have been employing a strategy to increase their market share through a price war and then catch up with leading companies by winning a technological race based on their strong financial power. DSCC, a global market research firm, predicted that China will be able to secure a 47 percent share of the global OLED market in 2025, putting Korea (51 percent) in striking distance.