What Display Daily Thinks: Apple has three major suitors and they are all duking it out to position themselves at the front of the line for Apple’s OLED business. In the meantime, there are just too many questions about consumer demand, and next generation product roadmaps to predict what happens in 2024.
Will consumer demand rebound by early 2024? It doesn’t look likely right now, at least not in North America, where Apple builds its momentum for new products. In the meantime, its suppliers just keep jockeying for position. They have some time on their hands because that’s 2023 for you.
Lawsuits and Snubs
Reports coming out of Korea are suggesting that Samsung has suspended reviewing BOE OLED panels as a supplier for its smartphones. BOE has, in the past, supplied lower tier models with both LCD and OLED displays, but the ongoing battle between the two companies seems to have heated up considerably starting with yet another patent suit by Samsung in Texas.
The Elec had reported that the dispute between Samsung and BOE is really the result of Samsung’s changing status with Apple. Samsung no longer enjoys being under supply commitment contracts which guaranteed it a certain volume of shipments to Apple, and penalties paid by Apple if those commitments were not met. However, now, Apple has been freed up to work with other suppliers, which has opened the door for both LG and BOE.
In the meantime, LG is being said to have had to push back its OLED production plans as Apple delays its own rollout of OLED MacBooks due to a sharp drop in consumer demand for the laptops. While there is news of 11-inch and 13-inch OLED iPad Pros coming in early 2024, there is still some doubts about what will actually happen because, these new tablets are going to be more expensive with their hybrid OLED displays, and even with the added benefits of a more powerful, thinner design, no one knows if the consumer market will have the stamina for higher prices if 2023 continues to deflate expectations, as it has.
