Mobiles

BOE will have yet another opportunity to supply Apple with panels for the iPhone 14

BOE gets another chance to supply panels to Apple for the iPhone 14

Advertisement
Advertisement

You probably recall hearing about the Chinese glass maker BOE at some point. Because the company had such a strong desire to become a supplier for iPhones, it started climbing the supply chain ladder. To begin, it was able to provide replacement OLED panels for devices that required new glass. That instilled confidence in Apple, so the firm agreed to let BOE supply some iPhone 12 units. The rumour has it that the company was also offered the chance to supply Apple with up to 40 million displays for a range of iPhone models.

BOE has high hopes of being able to provide Apple with 30 million OLED panels for the 6.1-inch iPhone 14. However, the manufacturer made the decision to alter the panel’s specifications in a manner that was not coordinated with Apple. According to reports, BOE altered the width of the thin-film transistors that were utilised on the panels without first obtaining approval from Tim Cook or anybody else at Apple. In the following paragraphs, we will examine the likely motivation behind why this action was taken.

Advertisement

BOE will have yet another opportunity to supply Apple with panels for the iPhone 14

Because of the conduct of the glass maker, the company ran the risk of being kicked out of Apple’s supply chain to such an extreme degree that Apple probably wouldn’t even allow BOE to supply the glass for its $19 Polishing Cloth. We are aware that the product in question does not contain any glass, and this is, to some extent, our point.

However, given the current state of the global supply chain, Apple has opted to forgive, if not forget, the issue. According to some (via AppleInsider), BOE’s panels purportedly obtained certification from Apple last week, and volume manufacturing (or mass production, if you prefer that better) of the panels would commence before the end of this month. AppleInsider was the source for this information. It is anticipated that Apple will begin receiving shipments in the month of September, which is also the month in which the new iPhone 14 series will likely be released.

And in classic Apple manner, the fact that BOE is still hanging around actually works to Apple’s advantage. It keeps Samsung and LG honest regarding the pricing since both of these firms understand that there is still another possible OLED supplier lurking in the background ready to provide Apple with a better bargain on iPhone displays. This keeps both of these companies honest.

BOE gets another chance to supply panels to Apple for the iPhone 14

You might be curious as to why BOE changed the specifications of the iPhone 14 panels that it was in the process of making. It would appear that the company was reporting low yields, which indicates that a significant number of the panels it was making were unable to pass the quality control or quality assurance testing. By increasing the thickness of the film transistors throughout their width, production of the panels became simpler, which led to an increase in their yield rate.

Apple, unfortunately for BOE, found out about the hoax and could not be fooled. This leads us to question the Chinese manufacturer’s ultimate goal, or even whether it had one in the first place. Apple was certain to notice the alteration at some point in the future. After Apple found out what had transpired, BOE dispatched what was described as a “C-level” official to Cupertino in an effort to explain what had occurred and to ask for forgiveness from Apple, which it appears to have been granted.

Show More

Related Posts

Back to top button