Samsung's OLED Monopoly Blamed for Higher iPhone 8 Price Tag
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Posted September 6, 2017 at 6:13pm by iClarified
Samsung's current position as the only major OLED display panel supplier may explain why the iPhone 8 is rumored to cost around $1000, reports KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The analyst says the new iPhone's display will include a flexible OLED panel, an OLED touch panel, a 3D Touch module, and an OLED panel module. Samsung is likely responsible for supplying each of the parts with the exception of the 3D Touch module.
Since there are no other suppliers Apple can turn to, Kuo believes Samsung will charge more than twice as much per unit as the LCD panels used in the iPhone 7 Plus. The OLED unit cost is estimated as $120-130 versus $45-55 for LCD panels.
Additionally, Apple's pressure sensitive 3D Touch technology may be why the company abandoned Touch ID on the OLED iPhone. Kuo believes that OLED creates unfavorable scan-through performance for the fingerprint sensor.
Apple has officially announced a September 12th iPhone event that will take place at the new Steve Jobs Theater. We're likely to see the launch of three new iPhones at the event - an iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus. The iPhone 8 would be Apple's tenth anniversary smartphone. It's believed to feature an edge-to-edge5.8-inchOLED display with a notch in the bezel at the top for the earpiece and front facing camera. It will use a virtual Home button in place of the traditional physical Home button at the bottom of the device. The device will purportedly incorporate a revolutionary 3D sensor that is years ahead of the competition to enable facial recognition and augmented reality features. It's also said to feature a glass back to facilitate inductive wireless charging. The latest reports claim Apple was not successful in embedding Touch ID under the display and so the iPhone 8 will only feature Face ID (Pearl ID) for biometric security.
for yrs ive read battles on this site..but no one ever seems to say that if they are competitors..but they buy parts from each other...who does that...think ppl
Samsung should be worried since Apple will push harder to have more manufacturers and competitive costs. No doubt they're having fun for as long as it lasts, hope it'll be short-lived.