Due to Samsung's monopoly in the mobile OLED panel market, Apple dad to depend on the South Korean tech giant's display subsidiary to source the iPhone X display, despite the fierce rivalry between the two companies.
If a new report out of South Korea is to be believed, Apple will again buy up to 200 million OLED panels from Samsung for the iPhone X successor in 2018. And, that deal will help Samsung make as much as $22 billion in revenue.
According to the report, Samsung Display is likely to supply 180 to 200 million flexible OLED panels for the iPhone X in 2018, which will be nearly four times the amount of such panels supplied this year. Experts believe that the supply price for each panel could be $110, which could result in revenue of $19.8 billion to $22 billion.
The reason why Samsung is expected to increase supplies to Apple next years is that the yield rates at its existing OLED production lines have reportedly improved to over 80 percent in the second half of this year.
"It looks like the yield rates have reached almost 90 percent, and the fact that Samsung reached such levels even after the world's highest quality flexible OLED standards were applied, is quite significant," one industry watcher told The Korea Herald.
The 90 percent yield rate is expected to help Samsung Display churn out around 224 million 6-inch panels in a year, the report added.
Samsung has already been expected to make more money in revenue from the iPhone X parts than from components made for the Galaxy S8.
Meanwhile, Apple is expected to launch three iPhones in 2018, including 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch models with OLED displays and a 6.1-inch model with an LCD display.
All three 2018 iPhones will come with iPhone X-like features, including a full-screen notched design and the revolutionary TrueDepth camera system.
