Bye, LG and Samsung: BOE might become the largest iPhone display supplier in the future

This could come as yet another comeback story, as BOE had a pretty serious falling off with Apple less than a year ago. The supplier was caught cheating by making unsanctioned design changes to the iPhone 13 OLED panels it manufactured for Apple. 

Reportedly, BOE changed the circuit width of the film transistors on the OLED screens for Apple's orders, essentially making them thicker, and as a result, easier to manufacture. BOE allegedly had big manufacturing and quality control issues with the thinner actual screens that Apple actually wanted. This unsanctioned change could have helped BOE hit its yield targets, but Apple caught wind of the shady scheme and dropped BOE from its supplier list. Eventually, the two companies came to an agreement and BOE scored a second chance, reinstated back on the iPhone supply list.

And here we are, in early 2023, when the display manufacturer could be on track to become the largest OLED panel supplier for the iPhone 16 generation, Ming-Chi Kuo expects. Roughly a year ago, it was revealed that BOE could have also been locked in as the main supplier for LTPO OLED displays for the iPhone 15 family in 2023. That's a rather big deal as LG and mostly Samsung were chosen as the go-to suppliers of LTPO displays with variable refresh rate for the iPhone 13 Pro/13 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro/iPhone 14 Pro Max, but it seems that BOE would seriously step up this year.  

Speaking of the iPhone 15 generation, early rumors call for a Dynamic Island on the base-level iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which would bring the new hole-punch design to the whole squad, but it's rather unlikely that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will get high-refresh screens, those will likely remain exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Ultra. Some other rumored features for the full iPhone 15 lineup include 48MP main cameras on the whole lineup, as well as USB-C possibly succeeding the decade-old Lightning connector. 

All of this, however, could merely be just a stopgap solution until Apple is finally ready to grace its iPhones with mini-LED displays. Those are mostly similar to the mini-LED screens that Apple uses on its high-end iPads and MacBook Pros, but has even tinier light-emitting diodes, which still can deliver OLED-trumping levels of peak brightness without the potential risks of screen burn-in.

Rumors point out that this could happen in a couple of years' time: first up, the Apple Watch Ultra will reportedly be scoring a micro-LED display in late 2024, and it's entirely plausible the iPhone will be next in line to score such a display and spell the potential end of OLED displays for the iPhone. Surely, such a thing wouldn't happen until 2025 in the earliest

As far as the iPhone 16 is considered, we are yet to hear anything in particular about the display intricacies of the upcoming models. As we know more, so will you.