Samsung charging Apple $120 per OLED panel?

By now, it’s all but guaranteed that the most expensive iPhone to be revealed this evening will have an OLED screen and high screen/body ratio.

Samsung is the world leader in mobile OLED marketshare and quality, so it stands to reason that the company is supplying Apple. Now, prominent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has revealed that the South Korean firm has the iPhone maker by the proverbial short and curlies.

In a note obtained by Apple Insider, the analyst estimated that Apple is paying between US$120 and US$130 for each OLED panel produced by Samsung. The company apparently pays roughly US$50 for LCD panels for its iPhone 7 Plus.

“Apple is in urgent need of finding a second source of OLED,” the analyst said. But LG is still in the early stages of its production efforts, using OLED panels for its V30 smartphone. Fellow OLED panel makers Sharp and Japan Display are in similar predicaments.

The news comes a few months after reports that both Apple and Google were in lucrative talks with LG to secure OLED panels.