iPhone 8 will be launched this year by the Apple company, and most of the contracts necessary for the supply of components for its launch have already been signed. According to some information that appeared today, those from Samsung will not only supply the OLED screens for the iPhone 8, but also some of the other components needed to assemble Apple's new smartphone.
More precisely, for the iPhone 8, those from Samsung are going to help the Apple company to buy some of the components necessary for the OLED screen to function, these being modified at Apple's request. Apart from these, Samsung will also supply some flexible boards with integrated circuits for the iPhone 8, but it will help Apple to buy components from 4 other suppliers in South Korea.
STEMCO and LG Innotek will supply the components that connect the screen to the logic board for the iPhone 8, and the latter will be manufactured by Interflex, BH and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
iPhone 8 – Samsung will have a key role in 2017
Basically, Apple is more dependent on Samsung than many people thought, and the iPhone 8 will benefit from many components manufactured by the Korean partners. It is possible that Samsung offered its services to help Apple produce the iPhone 8, just with the idea of being able to sign a contract with those from Cupertino and be involved in the manufacture of this new smartphone.
Those from Samsung would have signed a contract worth 2.6 billion dollars with Apple, and based on it they will supply 70 million screens for iPhone 8 in the next 3 years. Of course, this contract could be extended to cover other smartphones apart from the iPhone 8, but it remains to be seen what Apple will decide.
"Because Apple is still less experienced in OLED, Samsung is said to be playing a key role in the overall supply chain management that consists of its own key parts suppliers ... Samsung's non-memory chip unit System LSI will supply display driver IC, the display chip for the OLED screen, while STEMCO and LG Innotek will provide the chip on films that connect it to the printed circuit board. The flexible printed circuit board will be provided by Interflex, BH and Samsung Electro-Mechanics."
At the moment, the iPhone 8 is the leader in the OLED screen market, controlling over 90% of the global annual production for these types of smartphone components. In the future, things will change, but for now, iPhone 8 will benefit from the technologies of Samsung and its partners so that the new smartphone can reach global markets this year.
