Just two days after announcing its 2018 iPhone lineup, Apple has picked LG Display as its second supplier of smartphone-sized OLED display panels, according to a report out of South Korea from the country’s ET News.
Citing an unidentified source, ET News says a recent batch of LG’s flexible OLED panels passed Apple’s stringent quality assurance tests.
Previously, Samsung had been the only OLED display manufacturer to meet Apple’s scale and quality requirements, and as such was its sole supplier of smartphone-sized OLED panels.
However, the Cupertino, California-based tech giant has reportedly been eyeing LG Display as a potential second supplier for months, even going so far as to offer a multi-billion dollar investment into the subsidiary to secure a steady supply of OLED panels.
In April, a report from the Wall Street Journal said LG had run into a manufacturing issue that made Apple question whether the company could meet its quality and scale demands.
Once LG ramps up production, Apple will likely use its new supply to negotiate a better per unit cost from Samsung. According to an analyst estimate, the iPhone X’s single most expensive component, at $65.50 USD per unit at the time, was its OLED display.
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