Last month we reported that BOE finally got accepted into Apple's latest-generation iPhone supply chain, and the company will supply 2 million AMOLED displays for iPhone 15 devices in 2023 (that's about 3% of Apple's total iPhone orders). This news came after many years when BOE failed to meet Apple's quality tests.

A new report from China now suggest that BOE's AMOLED displays have been found to still suffer from issues - specifically light leakage around the selfie-camera and sensor 'island'. Eventually Apple decided to cancel its orders from BOE this year, at least until the China-based display maker can fix the issue. 

DSCC estimates that foldable smartphone shipments reached 7 million units in Q3 2023, up 16% from last year and 215% from last quarter, as Samsung successfully launched the ` and Z Fold 5 phones, and other smartphone brands from China also ramped up their foldable smartphone sales.

Samsung's market share in the smartphone market was 72%, followed by Huawei (9%) and Honor (8%). DSCC expects foldable smartphone sales to fall 35% in the next quarter (but rise 47% compared to last year) on lower Samsung shipments and delays in new product announcements. In 2023, DSCC sees foldable smartphone shipments to reach 15.8 million units in total.

Our friends at DisplayMate posted an in-depth technical review of BOE's new X1 AMOLED display used in the upcoming OnePlus 12 smartphone. The OnePlus 12 hasn't officially launched, but we know it uses a 6.8" 3168x1440 2600 nits LTPO AMOLED display. The display has several novel technologies, including BOE's new-generation LTPO backplane, and the new Oppo P1 display chip that features high-precision pixel calibration algorithms that ensure high brightness, high image quality - reduced power consumption (by 13%, according to OnePlus).

Based on DisplayMate's extensive lab tests and measurements the OnePlus 12 delivers excellent display performance - and has earned the company's highest overall display assessment rating and highest display performance grade of A+. The display matches or breaks 18 different display quality records. some of these display records records include the highest peak display brightess (it reaches 2,675 nits for Low APL), the lowest screen reflectance (4%), the highestabsolute color accuracy (visually indistinguishable from perfect), and the largest native color gamut.

Universal Display is progressing with its blue PHOLED material, and earlier this month the company said it is on track to introduce the new material commercially in 2024. During a company seminar, UBI's Daejeong Yoon updated that according to their latest information, Samsung Display has decided to adopt a blue phosphorescence material in the second half of 2025 - a year later than expected.

Samsung is calling the new material stack B1, and it says that the new stack will increase the efficiency of its OLED device by more than 65% (which seems to be rather too much, maybe it means 65% of the power consumption of the current stack). UBI says that the blue OLED still suffers from low lifetime - the lifetime of the blue PHOLED stack is only 55% of the lifetime of its current fluorescence-blue stack, but regardless of that the company will introduce it commercially due to the power consumption efficiency.

DSCC reports that according to its information, OLED panel shipments in Q3 2023 increased 14% from last year (and 18% from the previous quarter) to reach 205 million units. There are positive signs that inventory has started to rebalance for some categories.

OLED smartphone shipments increased 12% over last quarter (and 25% from last year), while OLED TV shipments continue to be soft, and dropped 14% from last quarter and 40% (!) from last year.

BOE has been trying to be accepted into Apple's supply chain for their latest iPhone devices for many years, but has so far succeeded only in getting small orders for aftermarket panels. In March it was reported that BOE is developing panels for Apple, but in September it was reported that Apple decided to cancel all of its panned orders for BOE's iPhone 15 display OLED panels due to technical issues, and has moved all these orders to Samsung Display.

Now it is reported in Korean media that BOE has been finally approved, and the Chinese-based OLED maker will supply 2 million panels for Apple - or only about 3% of its total OLED supply in 2023. Obviously BOE hopes to gain more orders in 2024.

Motorola has demonstrated a new concept phone design, which they refer to as a Adaptive Display Concept. This is a smart bendable phone, that sports a 6.9" FHD+ (2220x1080) flexible AMOLED display produced by LG Display.

The adaptive display concept can be adjusted from a standard Android phone experience in a flat position to being wrapped for a wrist-worn experience or positioned in several stand modes. 

BOE hosted an event to mark the launch of its new X1 AMOLED screen, together with OnePlus, who will adopt the new display in its upcoming OnePlus 12 smartphone. BOE also announced, during the event, that it has produced over 100 million AMOLED displays already in 2023.

The OnePlus 12 will features a 2K (3168x1440) display that will offer a peak brightness of 2600 nits. The smartphone will also sport the company's own Oppo P1 display chip that features high-precision pixel calibration algorithms that ensure high brightness, high image quality - reduced power consumption (by 13%, according to OnePlus). The display is based on BOE's new-generation of LTPO backplane, that the company says offer stable high and low frequency switching and increase image performance, while reducing power consumption compared to its previous LTPO platform.

According to reports from Korea, Samsung Electronics has decided to adopt an AMOLED displays in its upcoming budget phone, the Galaxy A15. This will be the lowest cost Samsung phone to ever sport an OLED display.

Most of Samsung's entry-level phones use an LCD, but it seems that as prices of OLED panels continue to drop, Samsung is introducing its OLED into a wider range of phones. In fact it is said that Samsung's production cost of a rigid OLED is currently lower than the production cost of an equivalent LCD display. The A15 will use a 6.4" rigid (glass-based) panel, and the phone itself will cost around $270 when it launches next year, for the 5G variant.