OLED Panel for Apple
Samsung Display will supply its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels to Apple, starting next year.
According to industry sources on April 14, Samsung Display, an affiliate of Samsung Electronics, signed a contract early this month with Apple to supply around 100 million units of 5.5-inch panels annually for three years, amounting to 3 trillion won (US$2.60 billion) in value.
The contract is expected to drive the Korean display panel maker to make a large scale of investment in expanding A3 production facility in Asan City, South Choongcheong Province.
It is the first time that Apple, which has been wedded to using LCD displays unlike Samsung Electronics, decided to equip the OLED display on iPhones.
According to the market researcher HIS, the share of OLED panels in the global display market stands at 36.9 percent, but is expected to increase up to 46.9 percent in 2018. It means that the weight of OLED in the premium smartphone market would expand sharply as iPhones adopt OLED panels following Samsung Galaxy 7 series.
As Samsung and Apple join hands once again in the electronic component sector, some of the display suppliers are likely to react with joy while others with disappointment. Apple has outsourced LCD panels for iPhones from LG Display and Sharp.
Samsung Electronics has already been a supplier of application processors (AP) for Apple's iPhones.
In the meantime, Samsung Display could lessen the dependence on Samsung Electronics with winning the contract from Apple.