Apple has reportedly reassigned BOE's planned OLED panel allocation for the iPhone 17 Pro to Samsung after the Chinese supplier failed to resolve reliability issues ahead of mass production, according to a new report from ZDNet Korea.
BOE was preparing to supply up to 10 million OLED panels for the iPhone 17 Pro in the Chinese market after receiving initial mass-production approval from Apple early in the third quarter of 2025. The supplier's progress apparently stalled due to unresolved technical problems affecting panel reliability, yield, and performance, making it unable to meet Apple's LTPO performance requirements.
BOE had not previously supplied LTPO OLED panels to Apple, which support features like always-on and ProMotion for refresh rates up to 120Hz. It was purportedly hoping to supply at least 40 million OLED panels to Apple this year, but amid rapidly falling supply forecasts, that is now highly unlikely to occur. BOE is said to have resolved the issues by mid-November, by which time it was too late and Apple's supply plans had changed.
Samsung Display will now seemingly take over BOE's planned volume for the iPhone 17 Pro. Samsung was previously expected to supply around 80 million OLED panels for the iPhone 17 lineup. This figure is now projected to rise to approximately 90 million units as a result of the reallocation.
Apple remains dependent on Samsung Display and LG Display for high-specification OLED manufacturing as it scales LTPO technology across more of its devices.
