Apple Dives Into Display-Making To Cut Reliance On Samsung

Apple is reportedly expanding its involvement in the mass production of micro-LED displays to reduce its reliance on Samsung and gain more control over the supply chain. Nikkei Asia reports: Apple has spent heavily on the development of micro-LED displays over the past decade and once production starts, it intends to perform the critical 'mass transfer' step of the manufacturing process itself, according to sources involved in the project. The mass transfer step involves moving at least tens of thousands of tiny micro-LED chips onto substrates. This process will be carried out at Apple's secretive R&D facilities in the Longtan District in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the project.

Displays are one of the most expensive components in all of Apple's devices. Since the American company first introduced OLED displays on its iPhone in 2017, its reliance on Samsung Display for the screens has only grown. To reduce that dependence and gain price-bargaining power, Apple tried to bring in other suppliers, namely LG Display and China's display champion BOE Technology, but they lag the South Korean leader in terms of technology and quality stability, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

'Apple has spent at least $1 billion on the R&D and samples for micro-LED technologies in the past nearly 10 years,' said one of the people who has been directly involved in the project for years. 'It wants to secure more control over the next-gen display technologies for its future products.' For the project, Apple is partnering with suppliers like ams-Osram for micro-LED components, LG Display for the substrates -- also called backplates -- and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for 12-inch wafers. In addition to designing the driver integrated circuits for the micro-LED screens, Apple even designed some of the production equipment itself to better control the mass transfer process, according to two of the people with direct knowledge of the matter. 'It doesn't mean that Apple will always do the mass transfer on its own. But it shows how determined Apple is to allocate resources to have more control over [these] next-gen display technologies in its own hands,' one of the sources said.

'Apple's ultimate plan is to introduce the technologies on its iPhone, which is its key revenue source and has much bigger volume, to justify the investments over the years,' added one of the sources.

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