The iPhone X is the first smartphone from Apple to feature an OLED display. Since Samsung has a near monopoly in the mobile OLED panel market, Apple had no choice but to turn to its rival's display subsidiary to source the panels.
According to a new report out of South Korea, Samsung Display will supply up to 200 million flexible OLED panels for the iPhone in 2018. This will translate into revenues of up to $22 billion.
Making bank
Samsung is expected to supply Apple with 180-200 million flexible OLED panels for the iPhone X in 2018. Industry watchers believe that the supply price is $110 per panel. If that's accurate, it will result in a revenue of $19.8-$22 billion for Samsung Display.
Samsung Display will be supplying almost four times the number of panels that it supplied for the iPhone X this year. It's estimated that Apple sourced 50 million panels from Samsung for the iPhone X in 2017.
The yield rates at Samsung's existing OLED production lines have reportedly improved to over 80 percent in the second half of this year. Samsung was previously believed to be investing in new production lines to meet Apple's demand but reports now claim that improved yield rates have enabled it to meet demand with its existing production lines.
Apple is certainly going to need a lot more of these OLED panels in the coming year as demand for the iPhone X remains steady. The company will also be expected to launch a successor next year and that's also going to have an OLED panel supplied by Samsung Display.
As we've said previously, the iPhone X is going to make Samsung a lot of money.
