For its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro range, the tech giant Apple is betting on Samsung Display and LG Display, all while silently turning their back on China-based BOE. According to the report from The Elec, the move comes ahead of an anticipated launch of the upcoming iPhone lineup.
The OLED displays on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will make use of Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide Plus, which is abbreviated as LTPO+. It is much more than just an ordinary improvement. The LTPO+ display utilizes oxide for both switching and driving transistors, allowing the display to gain greater accuracy in controlling the flow of current into the OLED layers. As a result, LTPO+ is much more efficient than today’s LTPO displays, used in the iPhone 17 Pro series. Samsung Display and LG Display were able to meet the LTPO+ needs of Apple. BOE wasn’t.
Apple OLED Suppliers Win iPhone 18 Pro Orders
Samsung Display’s success was far from accidental. This corporation has been expanding its manufacturing capacities by up to 10%–15% more than those in the first half of 2025, which helped Samsung be among the winners of the Apple’s negotiations and secured a considerable market share. As a result, Samsung Display has obtained an opportunity to produce about 146 million OLED panels for the iPhone 18 Pro models. The second company selected by Apple as its display panel supplier is the LG Display with its approximate production of 82 million units.
Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ Launch Is Closer Than You Think!
BOE Loses the Premium Slot
BOE was providing OLED screens for multiple iPhone 17 models, but moving up to LTPO+ was just too much of a stretch. The Chinese company couldn’t meet Apple’s standards for producing those screens on a mass scale. Apple reacted by cutting BOE out of its iPhone 18 Pro supply chain completely.
The difference in capabilities between South Korea’s display producers and China’s has widened considerably since Apple began incorporating LTPO displays into its standard iPhone 17 models. This set a new standard for all iPhones and has been tough for BOE to match.
BOE Holds On — Just
Losing the Pro lineup does not erase BOE from Apple’s supplier network entirely. The company retains supply agreements covering older and budget iPhone models — including the iPhone 14, iPhone 15, iPhone 16e, iPhone 16, iPhone 17e, and iPhone 17. Those contracts still represent tens of millions of units, but they sit firmly at the lower end of Apple’s portfolio.
The Bigger Picture
The collaboration between Samsung Display for manufacturing the screens of Apple’s premium iPhone models and Samsung Electronics’ direct competition against Apple in the global smartphone market is one of the most interesting rivalries in the tech industry. They compete in all markets for customers but are highly interdependent among themselves. The iPhone 18 Pro arrives later this year. Its display will almost certainly carry a Samsung or LG fingerprint and that says everything about where the global display industry stands right now
