Apple has a difficult relationship with Chinese display maker BOE (Beijing Oriental Electronics), but it is BOE that can become a supplier of screens for the budget iPhone SE 4, reports the electr. Apple has been trying for some time to reduce its dependence on its main OLED display supplier, the Korean company Samsung.
Image source: apple.com
Relations between Apple and BOE went awry in 2020 when some of the Chinese manufacturer’s screens failed quality checks. Apple later caught BOE making inconsistent changes to displays for the iPhone 13. The Chinese company received an order to produce 6.1-inch OLED screens for the iPhone 14, but it is unlikely to land a deal for screens for the future iPhone 15. However, the partnership may continue within the next iPhone SE budget.
The fourth-gen Apple iPhone SE will likely feature older OLED displays, allowing BOE to draw on its existing inventory of components. In addition, with this step, Apple is trying to reduce its dependence on Samsung in the area of displays. In fact, the American manufacturer is highly dependent on the Korean partner capable of mass-producing high-quality OLED screens to given specifications. And Samsung’s display division sometimes abuses those relationships, she writes The information. The company gets away with something no Apple contractor can even dream of: Samsung, for example, can keep Apple engineers away from its facilities and refuse to replace a batch if a minor flaw is found.
As much as the iPhone manufacturer wants to free itself from its dependency on Samsung, it will not be able to do so in the coming years. Apple is preparing to release micro-LED displays, but initially they will only be used in smartwatches. And outsourcing iPhone SE display orders to a Chinese manufacturer can’t hurt: the advanced OLED LTPO displays that Samsung is supplying for the iPhone 14 (and likely 15) are more than twice as expensive as displays for a budget model the new generation.
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