Apple display supplier BOE may lose iPhone 14 order after cheating in trial production...

[nanoguy]

In brief: Apple is known for having relatively strict specifications for how its products are manufactured. Chinese display maker BOE has been trying to cheat its way into a tighter partnership with the Cupertino giant. In doing so, it may have lost a lucrative contract for up to 30 million OLED panels for the iPhone 14.

Samsung and LG have been Apple's main suppliers of OLED screens for the iPhone over the past several years. That said, the Cupertino giant has also built a partnership with display maker Beijing Oriental Electronics (BOE), who was supposed to get an order for around 30 million OLED panels for the iPhone 14. Previously, BOE only made display panels for refurbished iPhones.

According to a report from The Elec, the Chinese supplier could lose this lucrative contract due to going out of its way to pass Apple's strict quality control checks. Specifically, BOE was experiencing many defective units in early production runs, so it quietly altered the display design to improve the yield.

Unfortunately for BOE, Apple engineers were quick to notice the discrepancy. The former company increased the circuit width of the thin film transistors on the OLED panels, thus lowering the specifications that Apple had set for them. Following the incident, BOE sent an executive along with a few engineers to Apple's headquarters to explain its actions.

Apple is expected to start mass production of the upcoming iPhone as soon as next month, so BOE's decision to cheat when demonstrating its manufacturing capabilities could prompt Apple to place the order for 30 million iPhone 14 OLED panels with Samsung and LG instead. It also doesn't help that BOE has been struggling to secure enough display drivers and power management chips for such a tall order.

In the meantime, Apple is reportedly exploring ways to expand manufacturing outside of China in an effort to diversify production and create a more resilient supply chain. The company is considering alternative production hubs in countries like India and Vietnam, where suppliers such as Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron have been building new facilities.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94682-apple-display-supplier-boe-may-lose-iphone-14.html

 

[RudyBob]

Not the Chinese ! They don't cut corners

 

[p51d007]

Well, they source it from one Chinese maker or another.

 

[Dd663]

Apple is gross. They could easily afford to source components and manufacturing from locations with humane worker wages thanks to how overpriced their stuff is, but they won't, because execs, shareholders, and the like want more money lining their pockets.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Apple is gross. They could easily afford to source components and manufacturing from locations with humane worker wages thanks to how overpriced their stuff is, but they won't, because execs, shareholders, and the like want more money lining their pockets.

This may come as a shock to you, but corporations do not care about you, the individual. They never have. You are cogs in a machine, cows to be milked, and human labor is to be consumed damn the consequences.

Everyone seemed to understand this at one point, but now we listen to corporations to inform our social opinions and fanboy over the latest product available for consoomption.

 

[Dd663]

This may come as a shock to you, but corporations do not care about you, the individual. They never have. You are cogs in a machine, cows to be milked, and human labor is to be consumed - the consequences.

Everyone seemed to understand this at one point, but now we listen to corporations to inform our social opinions and fanboy over the latest product available for consoomption.

I'm not really sure how you got the impression I needed to be informed of such from the post you quoted. I'm well aware that corporations are not our friends.

Pursuing the cheapest labor available at least has logic to it when one's business plan is to make low-price products, the so-called "rush to the bottom." Apple, with the heavy premium they put on all of their products, has no such excuse for using cheap, underpaid labor.

 

[ypsylon]

I don't get it about Apple.

They manufacture stuff in China and yet they are perceived as some luxury brand. But that perceived luxury comes at slave labor cost.

They consider other countries. Yeah except Vietnam which is stable economy, nobody sane can consider India with its filth ridden streets and religious pogroms, wars with Pakistan/Bangladesh/China every few years. Also one thing which in India is very illusory is punctuality - if you never dealt with companies/people in India and expected people to be on time then you don't know what it means. I'm fairly confident that word doesn't exist in Hindu. On the other side, why Fruity Cult won't bring this back to US. So they won't have to print Designed in California, Manufactured in China on their products. It's so comical. Knowing Americans they would buy Apple in droves even more if everything would be Made in the USA.