What you need to know

  • A report suggests that Apple's order of OLED screens in September was 40% higher than initially planned
  • Samsung on course to deliver between 40 and 50 million OLED displays to Apple in second half of 2019.
  • Samsung supplies 90% of OLED displays for iPhone.

A report today suggests that the number of OLED display panels shipped by Samsung to Apple in September was 40% higher than initially expected, pointing to massively increased demand for the iPhone 11.

The news via Cult of Mac suggests that Samsung could ship as many as 50 million OLED panels to Apple in the second half of 2019:

The report runs down the number of iPhone panels delivered by Samsung in the second half of 2019. In July, Samsung shipped 3.9 million units, followed by 8.4 million in August, and 9.9 million in September (up from the planned 6.9 million). Orders for October are supposedly around 9.8 million units, while 5 million are expected for November, and an unspecified number for December. Going by those figures, it would seem that the number will be closer to 40 million than 50 million.

Whilst we have seen several reports of strong performance for the iPhone 11 since its launch in September, this is perhaps the first quantifiable estimate as to just how much better than expected the iPhone 11 is performing. With Samsung handling 90% of the OLED panels that are made for iPhone, certainly the inflated September order points to a successful launch of the iPhone 11.