Samsung is reportedly close to becoming OLED display supplier for future iPhones

A new rumor out of South Korea says that Samsung and Apple are in advanced talks about the former supplying the latter with OLED display panels for future iPhones. A deal hasn't been concluded yet, but apparently that's very close to happening.

As such, the Korean company is looking to increase its OLED panel output in order to be able to meet the bigger demand that it shall face if it becomes Apple's supplier. In fact, Samsung could actually decide to build an entire OLED production facility just to supply Apple, if the deal goes through of course. It's possible that Apple will finance such a move, at least in part.

The first step in Samsung's strategy is already occurring, as it is selling one of its LCD manufacturing facilities' equipment to a Chinese company. The money it will gain from this move will be used only to increase OLED panel production capacity.

And if it builds production lines solely for Apple, Samsung could become the Californian company's biggest supplier of displays, moving past LG Display, certain unnamed sources are speculating. Samsung is already making OLED panels for the Apple Watch, so a deal for iPhones would be an extension of an existing agreement.

Samsung is going to face competition in the OLED screen space from quite a few Chinese companies that have all planned to build production facilities soon, so it can no longer afford not to aggressively invest in its own lines.

Source | Via