Chinese manufacturer BOE Technology has been supplying Apple with OLED panels for the iPhone since 2021, but it looks as though it won’t be doing so for the iPhone 14, and it only has itself to blame.
As The Elec reports(Opens in a new window), Apple has yet to give its approval for BOE to start manufacturing iPhone 14 OLED panels. If you want a reason why, it’s most likely due to a lack of trust. It’s thought BOE decided to change the design(Opens in a new window) of the OLED panel it was producing for the iPhone 13 without running it by Apple first. The design change expanded the circuit width of the thin-film transistor in the panel, which was most likely done to improve yield rates.
Of course, Apple noticed and unsurprisingly supplies of OLED panels from BOE to Apple all but ceased immediately. BOE responded by sending a “C-level executive” and some employees to Apple’s headquarters to explain why they changed the design without permission. Clearly Apple wasn’t impressed with the change or the explanation given, as iPhone 14 panel production approval is being withheld.
It’s thought Apple intended to rely on BOE for 30 million OLED panels for its new smartphone, but that now seems increasingly unlikely to happen. Instead, either Samsung or LG Display could be asked to produce more panels under their existing contracts, leaving BOE to think long and hard about what it did. The company has been around since 1993, supplies a number of industries including the health care sector, and has over 68,000 employees, so it will be just fine but this snub must be embarrassing and costly.
