Apple’s Chinese display supplier BOE continues to struggle with iPhone OLED production, resulting in millions of panel orders being shifted to Samsung Display, according to a report by The Elec.
The publication’s industry sources tell it that BOE still hasn’t been able to resolve the manufacturing issues that emerged in November and December of 2025. Problems with a specific production process are said to have forced the company to halt production on some panel models entirely.
BOE had been supplying OLED panels for Apple’s iPhone 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, as well as the iPhone 16e and its successor, the upcoming 17e. The quality issues are said to be specifically affecting panels for the iPhone 15, 16, and 17.
This isn’t the first time BOE has struggles to meet Apple’s stringent panel quality requirements.
This is not the first time BOE has had trouble meeting Apple’s standards for OLED panels. In 2023, the company struggled to fix light leakage issues around the Dynamic Island cutout for iPhone 15 displays, leading Apple to reduce orders significantly.
However, the company has been able to reliable supply LTPS OLED panels for the iPhone 15 and 16 for quite a while. While it’s true that the iPhone 17’s LTPO panels are more technically demanding, BOE shouldn’t have had the same challenges with older models.
“BOE had been stably supplying OLED for the iPhone 15 and 16, so the industry finds this puzzling,” one source told The Elec.
BOE will now focus on providing a stable supply of displays for the iPhone 17e, which is expected to launch early this year, likely some time in the Spring. The company will hold the largest panel allocation among suppliers for that model.
Meanwhile, Samsung Display has picked up BOE’s slack by manufacturing millions of redirected orders that BOE had been expected to handle.