iPhone 15 OLED display supplier ditched over quality concerns as Samsung saves the day

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BOE is in the dog house.

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As Apple gets ready to announce the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups a new report claims that it's had to ditch one key supplier over quality concerns.

It was expected that OLED manufacturer BOE would be responsible for at least some of the displays that will be used in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. But a new report claims that is no longer the case after Apple deemed BOE's displays to be of insufficient quality, causing it to turn elsewhere instead.

The beneficiary of the decision is a long-time Apple supply chain partner and one that was already set to be involved with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Samsung Display is that company's name, and it's swooped in to save the day.

Out with BOE, in with Samsung Display

This is all according to an ETNews report which details BOE's quality control woes. The report says that Samsung Display is now going to be responsible for producing displays for all four new models while LG Display will also work on LPTO panels for the best iPhones only.

However, it's the less-impressive LTPS OLED panels that will be used in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus that have proven problematic with Apple asking suppliers to cut holes in them to house the Dynamic Island.

"BOE was planning to deliver LTPS OLED to the iPhone 15 but was reportedly not approved for supply due to quality issues," the report notes. "It seems that the volume assigned to the BOE has been transferred to Samsung Display because it has not been approved until the launch time is approaching."

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be the first non-Pro iPhones to sport a Dynamic Island, meaning they'll also be the first LTPS panels Apple has asked BOE to cut into, seemingly causing issues as a result.

Apple is expected to announce all four new iPhones during a live-streamed event today, September 12.

We're covering all the Apple iPhone 15 event announcements live as they happen. Don't miss all our iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 17and watchOS 10 coverage so far.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.