Samsung is sole supplier of costly 'iPhone 8' OLED, putting Apple in 'urgent need' of alte...
The upcoming launch of the "iPhone 8" will reportedly see Apple in a precarious position in terms of parts, as the only company currently capable of producing OLED panels for the new edge-to-edge display is said to be rival Samsung.
"iPhone 8" render. | Source: Gordon Kelly and Nodus
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities issued a note to investors on Wednesday, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider, revealing that Samsung has strong bargaining power against Apple.
He suspects that the OLED displays for the "iPhone 8" cost Apple between $120 and $130 per unit -- well beyond the $45 to $55 per unit Apple is said to pay for the iPhone 7 Plus 5.5-inch LCD screen.
According to Kuo, "Apple is in urgent need of finding a second source of OLED." Any diversity in the supply chain will take time, however, as competing display makers need to not only ramp up OLED output, but also master manufacturing of the next-generation display technology to meet Apple's quality control standards.
Interestingly, Kuo still seems unsure as to whether the next iPhone will have a fingerprint sensor. In Wednesday's note, he suggested that Apple "may abandon" its Touch ID technology in favor of the OLED display, but stopped short of saying definitively that it has been removed from the handset, which will be revealed in less than a week.
"We believe 3D Touch module could be unfavorable for scan-through performance of under-display fingerprint recognition," Kuo said, "which is one of the main reasons why OLED iPhone may abandon fingerprint recognition."
All the mysteries will be resolved next Tuesday, when Apple is holding an event to presumably unveil its next-generation iPhone lineup, headlined by the flagship "iPhone 8." Other names given to the unannounced product include "iPhone Pro," "iPhone Edition," and "iPhone X."
The device is expected to carry a premium price starting at around $1,000, and will be flanked by successors to the iPhone 7 lineup, sporting legacy (and cheaper) LCD technology.
In addition, a new "Series 3" Apple Watch with integrated LTE radio, and a new 4K Apple TV with support for HDR content, are expected to be announced at the event. AppleInsider will be there live, at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, with full coverage and analysis.
As a result, OLED technology can have has significant power efficiency improvements over LCD screens, assuming software is utilized appropriately. For instance, a truly black pixel consumes no power, allowing for other utilizations of an OLED screen, such as only using a small portion of it for a constant time and notification display, with minimal impact to battery life.
Without the need for a backlight, an OLED screen can be thinner than competing technologies, all other factors equal. OLED response times can theoretically reach 0.01 milliseconds, versus 1 millisecond for modern LCD screens.
Market watchdogs believe that by 2020, OLED technology will be seen in 40 percent of all smartphones sold.
But, production remains more complicated than traditional LED screens. A speck of dust can ruin an entire screen during initial fabrication, and water impingement is a major problem for screens in-use. Even a small amount of water contacting the organic substrate of the screen can immediately damage the display, necessitating replacement.
Samsung holds the vast majority of OLED technology patents, with Samsung holding 97.7 percent of global production in April of 2016. Manufacturing problems remain the primary hurdle to wider success by others.
Samsung appears to be banking on Apple being a major customer for some time for the technology. After rumors in April surfaced about increased OLED production contracts from Apple, Samsung was said to be bulking up factories for production of the screens.
Other companies said to be heavily investing in OLED are Japan Display, and LG Display. When efforts by either company will produce sufficient volume for Apple is not clear.
"iPhone 8" render. | Source: Gordon Kelly and Nodus
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities issued a note to investors on Wednesday, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider, revealing that Samsung has strong bargaining power against Apple.
He suspects that the OLED displays for the "iPhone 8" cost Apple between $120 and $130 per unit -- well beyond the $45 to $55 per unit Apple is said to pay for the iPhone 7 Plus 5.5-inch LCD screen.
According to Kuo, "Apple is in urgent need of finding a second source of OLED." Any diversity in the supply chain will take time, however, as competing display makers need to not only ramp up OLED output, but also master manufacturing of the next-generation display technology to meet Apple's quality control standards.
Interestingly, Kuo still seems unsure as to whether the next iPhone will have a fingerprint sensor. In Wednesday's note, he suggested that Apple "may abandon" its Touch ID technology in favor of the OLED display, but stopped short of saying definitively that it has been removed from the handset, which will be revealed in less than a week.
"We believe 3D Touch module could be unfavorable for scan-through performance of under-display fingerprint recognition," Kuo said, "which is one of the main reasons why OLED iPhone may abandon fingerprint recognition."
All the mysteries will be resolved next Tuesday, when Apple is holding an event to presumably unveil its next-generation iPhone lineup, headlined by the flagship "iPhone 8." Other names given to the unannounced product include "iPhone Pro," "iPhone Edition," and "iPhone X."
The device is expected to carry a premium price starting at around $1,000, and will be flanked by successors to the iPhone 7 lineup, sporting legacy (and cheaper) LCD technology.
In addition, a new "Series 3" Apple Watch with integrated LTE radio, and a new 4K Apple TV with support for HDR content, are expected to be announced at the event. AppleInsider will be there live, at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, with full coverage and analysis.
Why OLED?
A traditional LCD screen is considered transmissive -- individual elements change color, but are at the mercy of assorted backlight technologies for presentation. OLED screens are emissive, meaning that each individual pixel is its own light source with brightness being able to be set per pixel.As a result, OLED technology can have has significant power efficiency improvements over LCD screens, assuming software is utilized appropriately. For instance, a truly black pixel consumes no power, allowing for other utilizations of an OLED screen, such as only using a small portion of it for a constant time and notification display, with minimal impact to battery life.
Without the need for a backlight, an OLED screen can be thinner than competing technologies, all other factors equal. OLED response times can theoretically reach 0.01 milliseconds, versus 1 millisecond for modern LCD screens.
Market watchdogs believe that by 2020, OLED technology will be seen in 40 percent of all smartphones sold.
But, production remains more complicated than traditional LED screens. A speck of dust can ruin an entire screen during initial fabrication, and water impingement is a major problem for screens in-use. Even a small amount of water contacting the organic substrate of the screen can immediately damage the display, necessitating replacement.
Samsung remains the dominant producer of OLED
Other than Samsung, there are several vendors of OLED panels. However, at this time even with vendor's government aid and Apple's support, none come close to approaching the volume of the Samsung fabrication plants, and won't for a while.Samsung holds the vast majority of OLED technology patents, with Samsung holding 97.7 percent of global production in April of 2016. Manufacturing problems remain the primary hurdle to wider success by others.
Samsung appears to be banking on Apple being a major customer for some time for the technology. After rumors in April surfaced about increased OLED production contracts from Apple, Samsung was said to be bulking up factories for production of the screens.
Other companies said to be heavily investing in OLED are Japan Display, and LG Display. When efforts by either company will produce sufficient volume for Apple is not clear.
Comments
If you want to keep calling it iPhone 8 (instead of iPhone Edition) until next week, and keep pretending it might have Touch ID (which it doesn't)...fine. Just know that means your articles will be the least accurate out there for the next 6 days.
You are clearly very passionate about this subject, and I respect that, but I am simply reporting what the dude wrote — no ulterior motive or agenda, I can assure you.
So ... the site that is infamous for defending Apple's high-margin pricing strategy AND criticizing consumers for buying cheaper Microsoft, Android, Linux etc. alternatives AND attacking people who criticize Apple's fees (i.e. developers over the app store's 30% fee) AND attacking suppliers like Nokia, Qualcomm, the University of Wisconsin etc. for wanting Apple to pay practically nothing - or in fact nothing at all - for their IP (patent trolls they are called?) claiming that someone else is somehow fleecing Apple? This is rich.
Consumer: "I have five kids and elderly grandparents to take care of on a blue collar salary. I can't afford an iPhone, iPad and a Mac. I need to get an Android phone, Android tablet and a Windows PC instead and pay 75% less in the process." Apple Insider fans reply: "You are a horrible, terrible, very bad, no good, evil immoral person!
These are the same people who don't want Apple to have to pay $60 dollars more to benefit from what is clearly superior tech from the only company in the world that is able to supply it to them (because they, er, invented it). Amazing ...
2. The amount of Quality improvement coming from OLED each year is quite staggering. Apart from energy usage in white background it now outperforms LCD in all areas.
3.The problem is Samsung OLED is so far ahead of JDI and LG, I highly doubt both could get a competitive OLED out next year, and even if they do, the capacity and yield will definitely not fit Apple, i.e Samsung will likely still be 80% of OLED supplier for next year's iPhone.
4.Reading from post on Weibo the cost est is off quite a bit, not to mention the cost of cutting OLED into irregular shape is 100% being done by Sharp, not Samsung.
If you really,really, really have to change your phone then come October there will be plenty of iPhone 7's hitting the Pawn shops etc. Get a secondhand one and save yourself the grief from your family. You don't have to upgrade to the new iPhone. The same goes for Mac's.
A lot of these fair weather Apple fanbois have more money than sense and change their phones and laptops almost as often as they change their nappies.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/03/26/new-iphone-model-with-curved-glass-case-58-amoled-display-due-in-2017-insider-says
And the 10.5-inch iPad Pro back in August of 2016:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/08/15/apple-to-debut-105-ipad-pro-in-2017-integrate-flexible-amoled-tech-in-2018
And the new 9.7-inch entry-level iPad in January of this year:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/08/apple-on-track-to-launch-three-new-ipads-in-spring-2017-but-none-of-them-mini
And the (alleged) $1000-and-up pricing of the "iPhone 8" this February:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/02/15/apples-iphone-8-to-replace-touch-id-home-button-with-function-area
And the features and capabilities of HomePod in March:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/01/apples-siri-based-echo-competitor-to-carry-premium-price-feature-high-end-audio-with-1-woofer-7-tweeters
Is his track record perfect? No, it's not. But nobody else out there provides, in terms of quantity, more accurate information on Apple's hardware pipeline than Ming-Chi Kuo. Not Gruber, not Gurman, not anyone else.
If you have a certain probability that a certain pixel ends up dead due to production, you surely will get a MUCH higher probability of having at least 1 defect, with a 10Mpx panel, comparing to 120kpx panel. That is why it took so long for Apple to get 4k and 5k panels into their products.
Also, he constantly revise his so called predictions so how can he be wrong? He does that to everything he says ever; aka a crapshoot.
he knows only remember the right guesses and not the wrong ones
http://appleinsider.com/topic/ming-chi+kuo