In a major twist, Apple entrusts iPhone 17 display production to Chinese manufacturer

Just a few days ago, it was revealed that Apple was excluding Chinese display manufacturer BOE from the iPhone 17 supply chain due to it failing to meet the strict requirements in place. Now, an industry insider reports that Apple has reversed course, and has in fact entrusted BOE with display production for its upcoming flagship phones.

The kicker here seems to be that this will be limited to just the Chinese market for now, with other regions getting Samsung and LG panels instead. BOE, despite its complicated relationship with Apple, has manufactured display panels for the latter as recently as this year for the iPhone 16e.



This year, the manufacturer failed to meet the standards that Apple has imposed for the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. All of the iPhone 17 models will apparently come with a 120 Hz LTPO OLED display, or what Apple has dubbed ProMotion. Until now, it seemed that BOE would miss out on securing orders for the iPhone 17 series entirely.

If Apple has approved BOE to manufacture panels for the upcoming flagships, but only in China, that could mean a number of things. Either BOE won’t be able to produce panels as good as its competitors, or there isn’t enough time to let BOE manufacture for the entire world’s supply. If the former is true, then Chinese consumers may be getting the short end of the stick this year.

I honestly doubt that that’s the case. China is a major region for Apple, and recent explosive growth amongst Chinese consumers is not something that Apple would want to throw dirt on. It’s very likely that BOE was only just able to meet Apple’s standards, and there’s not enough time to make major changes to the supply chain.

Of course, it’s no secret why Apple has been trying to switch to BOE for years now. Doing so would mean significantly lowered manufacturing costs, as opposed to only sourcing from Samsung and LG. It’s just a shame that BOE has fumbled this opportunity multiple times.

This news will also be a major blow to Samsung and LG, which just lost out on a huge chunk of the supply orders. BOE has been making rapid advancements in display technology recently, and we might not be far off from a day when Apple ditches the Korean manufacturers entirely.