BOE Fails to Meet Apple's Standards
China's display producer BOE has reportedly failed to qualify as an OLED panel supplier for Apple’s iPhone.
BOE’s B7 line at Chengdu, Sichuan province has failed Apple’s review for OLED supply by showing a production yield of a mere 20 percent. The review was conducted in September. Earlier this year, BOE’s B11 line at Mianyang of the same province had also failed to meet Apple’s standards due to a low production yield rate.
Even if BOE passes Apple's review in the first half of 2021, BOE will be able to supply OLED panels for refurbished iPhone 12 handsets first. This suggests that only Samsung Display and LG Display are likely to participate in production of OLED panels for new iPhone models in 2021.
"BOE’s yield has yet to reach a level set by Apple," said Kim Ki-hyun, director of Stone Partners, a market research company. "The OLED panels that will be used for new iPhone products in 2021 have higher specifications than those for 2020. We believe the possibility of BOE supplying OLED panels to Apple is quite slim."
Two of the four new iPhone models that will be introduced in 2021 are expected to have OLED panels that use low temperature poly-crystalline oxide (LTPO)-thin film transistors (TFTs). Samsung Display is likely to supply these panels. It applied this technology to display panels for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra released in the second half of 2020.
LG Display is also developing the technology. Industry insiders say that LG Display will be able to apply it to OLED panels for smartphones as early as 2021. BOE lags far behind in LTPO-TFT technology. In addition, all new iPhone models to be released in 2021 are expected to use touch-integrated OLEDs called Y-OCTA, but BOE has no history of mass-producing touch-integrated OLEDs.
BOE accounted for 17.1 percent of global OLED sales in the second quarter of 2020. Yet its share fell to 13.7 percent in the third quarter and is likely to further slip to 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter, market research company Omdia forecast. BOE’s gap with Korean companies is expected to widen in 2021.