After they learned about Apple’s plans to cut iPhone production orders on account of pressing supply chain challenges, the head of Samsung Display Choi Joo-sun has reportedly flown to the US to meet with Apple representatives at the HQ in California and warn against wiggling out of the contracted orders.
According to The Elec‘s industry sources, the Samsung Display CEO has tried to dissuade Apple’s CEO Tim Cook from the production cut plans and make everything possible to ensure that the contract obligations with Samsung are met, despite Apple’s expressed intention to lower the iPhone production volume forecast from 220 million to 185 million units this year.
Samsung expected at least 160 million OLED panel orders from Apple in 2022, but at the quarterly results press conference yesterday Tim Cook advised that the company is going through a supply chain bottleneck that would directly affect the number of iPhones shipped going forward as well as the projected revenue.
According to a Korean display industry official, “Samsung Display has warned through various channels that it may sue Apple for a patent against a product containing a competitor’s OLED panel. Daesang seems to have the Chinese BOE in mind.”
Now, what exactly patent infringement does Samsung have in mind remains to be heard, but it was already in a big patent litigation fight with Apple a few years back and the team from Cupertino is probably unwilling to go through those motions one more time.
