Apparently iPhone 13 display production is not doing very well at BOE: an article from the South Korean financial newspaper yesterday The Elec says, citing internal sources, that the Chinese company, considered “number 3” in the world production of displays, has finished just a few units from February until today.
BOE had won the tender for the OLEDs of the 6.1 “iPhone 13 last year, and for a while the production was carried out in the normal way; then the chip crisis has hit and the company began to struggle with sourcing the ICs that drive the displays. Its manufacturer, LX Semicon, had decided to favor LG Display (the “number 2” of displays, with of course Samsung being number 1). But this fact alone fails to explain the almost total arrest that has taken place over the past four months.
According to the sources, the most plausible theory is that BOE has made changes to the project agreed with Apple without notifying it, that Apple has noticed it and has therefore decided to stop everything pending investigations. In particular, the Chinese company is said to have increased the width of the Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) circuit. Probably at this stage BOE is working on a corrective solution to resume production as soon as possible.
All this should not have too serious repercussions on the finished product: like all large producers, Apple relies on multiple suppliers at the same time precisely to avoid hitches of this type. In the case of displays, Apple collaborates with all three of the main panel manufacturing companies in the world – so Samsung, LG and BOE.
It is also unlikely that BOE will lose the contract: Apple is convenient not only for the supply itself, but also (above all?) Because it is significantly cheaper than Samsung and LG. In short, it can be exploited in negotiations with the two largest to get a more advantageous price … At least, until the other two lose their patience. In recent weeks, Samsung had launched several far from veiled threats at its competitors, saying it intended to protect its patents in the field of OLEDs more aggressively than it has done so far.
- Apple iPhone 13 is available online from PhoneClick to 725 euros or from Amazon to 826 euros. The value for money is good and it is one of the best devices in this price range.
Apple iPhone 13 is available on 
to 749 euros.
