Core Tip: On April 29, TheLec reported that Samsung Display CEO Joo-Sun Choi flew to the United States to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
On April 29, TheLec reported that Samsung Display CEO Joo-Sun Choi flew to the United States to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
He was on a business trip when he learned of Apple's decision to cut annual iPhone production by 15 percent this year. According to reports, in a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, he made a request "not to reduce the initial commitment to purchase OLED panels."
It is said that Apple set an annual production plan for 220 million iPhones in 2022 at the end of last year, and notified component suppliers based on this as a standard. Among them, Samsung Display received an expected supply of 160 million iPhone OLEDs from Apple.
However, due to a worsening semiconductor supply shortage and the spread of the new crown epidemic, Apple recently lowered its annual production target for iPhones to 185 million units, a decrease of 15.9% from its previous plan (of course, it is still much larger than Samsung's OLED orders).
Cui Zhoushan hopes that Apple will not reduce the promised purchases, and even if it really wants to cut orders, he hopes to minimize the gap. It was previously reported that in addition to Samsung Display and LG Display, BOE is also supplying OLED panels for the iPhone to Apple. Therefore, Samsung Display publicly announced this year that it will "utilize patents" as a strategy to deal with increased competition in the OLED market.
An industry source said: "I know Samsung Display has warned through various channels that it may sue Apple over patents on products containing rival OLED panels. He thinks Samsung's goals seem to have BOE in mind.
It is reported that Cook did not immediately respond to Cui's request. Experts assess that this is hard to take lightly, as Apple has a history of devoting resources to a bitter patent lawsuit with Samsung Electronics' MX division, formerly the wireless division, in the past.
It is worth mentioning that Samsung Display also confirmed that (President Cui) did visit Apple headquarters.
Apple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Luca Maestri emphasized on the earnings conference call on the 28th local time that supply constraints due to disruptions related to the new crown epidemic and chip shortages will affect the results of this fiscal quarter. An impact of $4 billion to $8 billion.
