After a series of bizarre technical difficulties at BOE disrupted its usual iPhone production cadence, Apple has now transferred millions of OLED panel orders to Samsung to sidestep further disruption.
BOE is experiencing difficulty in manufacturing not only the highly complex LTPO OLED panels for the Apple iPhone 17 but also the less complicated LTPS OLED panels for the iPhone 17e and other legacy models
According to a report by South Korea's The Elec, the bizarre production kinks at BOE have been holding up Apple's typical iPhone production cadence for the past two months, prompting the Cupertino giant to transfer OLED panel orders to Samsung.
Apparently, Samsung has gained around half of BOE's OLED panel orders from Apple. For context, do note that BOE had shipped around 40 million such display panels to Apple back in 2024, which equates to a monthly production cadence of around 3 million units.
In an even troubling development, BOE is apparently contending with production issues related to not just the current-gen Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide (LTPO) OLED panels for the Apple iPhone 17 but also the older-gen Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon (LTPS) OLED panels that are intended for the upcoming iPhone 17e as well as a host of legacy models such as the iPhone 13 (2021), the iPhone 14 (2022), the iPhone 15 (2023), the iPhone 16 (2024) and the iPhone 16e (2025).
This is all the more troubling given the fact that BOE's panel yields for the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 16 had remained stable through last year, which indicates a relatively new production kink in the company's manufacturing process.
Do note that Apple picked BOE as the primary supplier of OLED panels for the upcoming iPhone 17e. After the recent production holdups though, it is likely that Samsung will provide the panels for the upcoming budget offering from Apple.
Of course, as we noted recently, BOE has already failed to meet Apple's exacting standards for the iPhone 17's OLED panels. Under the initial arrangement, Apple had expected BOE to supply around 10 million LTPO OLED panels for the iPhone 17.
This comes as Samsung Display recently achieved a major legal victory against BOE, which was found guilty of stealing the South Korean giant's OLED technology. The case had been ongoing since 2023, when Samsung sued BOE in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming that BOE had imported OLED products into the US that were built using Samsung's proprietary trade secrets.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
