BOE is having trouble making OLED displays for the iPhone: will smartphones be in short supply again?

By: Elena Shcherban | 19.02.2022, 10:30
BOE is having trouble making OLED displays for the iPhone: will smartphones be in short supply again?

Because of ongoing global chip shortage, BOE has experienced production problems OLED panels for iPhone.

What's wrong?

BOE buys display drivers (chips responsible for screen operation) from LX Semicon, but the latter cannot keep up with orders due to lack of production capacity in factories. Looks like LX Semicon delivers display driver ICs for LG Display before BOE.

As a result, BOE is expected to reduce production next month OLED panels from three million units to two million units. In total, Apple ordered up to 10 million units from BOE for the first half of 2022. According to forecasts, the shortage will affect production in the next few months.

It is not yet clear if this will affect ‌iPhone‌ shipments. Recall that the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro models were in short supply after the launch in September last year, but now they are in stock and delivered immediately after purchase.

A source: Macrumors