According to South Korean media Businesskorea, Apple has finalized a plan to have Samsung Display exclusively supply the OLED screen needed for its first foldable iPhone. This strategic decision not only upended the existing pattern of the industry – suppliers such as LG Display and BOE were excluded from the supply chain list, but also marked the first time that Apple implemented a single-supplier strategy in the core components field.
Different from Apple’s traditional “dual-source supply” model (by bringing in multiple suppliers to balance cost and quality), the choice of Samsung as the exclusive partner is essentially Apple’s compromise on the ultimate quality. Industry analysts pointed out that since the advent of the Galaxy Fold in 2019, Samsung’s 6-year accumulation of technical barriers in the field of foldable OLED has become a key winner – its original UTG ultra-thin glass technology, multi-crease suppression algorithm and mass production yield control system are just in line with Apple’s supply chain philosophy of “rather lack than excess”.
According to supply chain news, Samsung has planned to start mass production by the end of 2024 or early 2025. The foldable flagship will be equipped with the same LTPO high-end panel as the 7.8-inch iPad Mini, and the outer screen will be equipped with 5.5-inch flexible OLED, and the $2,000 pricing strategy is aimed at the high-end market. Although Apple has not yet announced its final production capacity plan, the industry chain predicts that its annual shipments are expected to exceed the 15 million unit mark, a 67% surge from the conservative initial estimate of 9 million units.
This supply chain restructuring is reshaping the folding screen market pattern: Samsung is consolidating its leading position with the technology generation gap, and Apple’s entry will promote the foldable OLED penetration rate to jump from the current 3.2% to 8.7% in 2025 (Omdia data), and it is more likely to trigger the chain technology innovation of the upstream and downstream industrial chains such as flexible materials and hinge mechanisms. The prelude to this “folding war” has just begun.
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