Apple has purchased sophisticated equipment to set up its own research and development facility in Taiwan to develop its own OLED technology in order to reduce its dependence on Samsung Electronics for iPhone OLED panels.
According to a repot Monday from Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes, the Cupertino giant has purchased chemical vapor deposition (CVD) machines from Korea-based Sunic System to build a 2.5G OLED panel line.
In-house OLEDs will allow Apple to differentiate its products from other handsets that use Samsung-built OLED panels. According to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report cited by DigiTimes, the move will break the dominance of Japan-based Canon Kokki, currently the primary supplier of CVD machines that ships the bulk of its output to Samsung.
“Samsung has bought five sets of OLED manufacturing equipment from Canon Tokki so far in 2017 and has signed contracts to buy five out of ten such machines to be rolled out by the Japan-based machinery company in 2018,” said the Commercial Times.
LG Display also purchased these machines but Apple has yet to validate its OLED panels.
iPhone 8 mockup via iDropNews.