Apple reduces dependence on Samsung by LG OLED screens
Apple still needs a whole bunch of OLED displays for its existing and upcoming iPhone X-lineup. They do not want to buy them from Samsung anymore, because they do not like that dependence at all. Samsung made a substantial abuse of the situation by Apple to pay the main prize. According to Bloomberg LG will initially supply between two and four million displays and meanwhile try to increase the production capacity.
That’s not much, since the deal between Apple and Samsung involved around 100 million displays. So it is purely about having an alternative for Apple. Samsung can supply more than enough OLEDS to Apple. At the beginning of this year, Apple had to partially cancel the order because the sale of the iPhone X did not go according to plan. So there is more than enough production capacity left.
Cheaper screens, cheaper phones?
Another issue is that the LG screens would be of a slightly lesser quality than the screens Samsung provides. This can be seen by comparing the LG’s V30 display with the screens in the Galaxy series from Samsung. It should therefore mean that a cheaper version of the iPhone with the X design should be possible. The plan is apparently that LG will provide one of the new models iPhone that will be announced this fall with screens, but it is unclear which model that will be.
Apart from that, Apple now has some credit with Samsung, since the two giants have been suitable in the patent case that has been running for years. What Samsung Apple has given instead of the 539 million dollars enforced by the court is also unknown, because as with settlements need not be reported what form the deal has received.