According to a report by Korean display industry media outlet TheElec, citing industry sources, Samsung Display has received Apple’s approval to begin mass production of OLED panel modules for the first foldable iPhone and has started partial production lines at its backend facility in Vietnam. The initial order is for approximately 3 million panels, with delivery scheduled to be completed within this year. Module mass production approval requires suppliers to pass yield verification, with Apple’s threshold set at least 70%. Samsung Display has reportedly cleared this threshold with a yield rate exceeding 80%. The panels utilize CoE (Color Filter on Encapsulation) technology — which forms a color filter layer directly on the encapsulation layer to replace the polarizer — and feature Samsung’s latest M16 OLED material set, which is said to outperform its predecessors in brightness, color reproduction, lifespan, and power efficiency. Samsung Display is believed to be the exclusive supplier of foldable iPhone OLED panels under a three-year agreement, during which Apple will not source foldable screens from other display manufacturers.
In terms of device specifications, the foldable iPhone is currently rumored to feature an inner display of approximately 7.8 inches and an outer display of about 5.5 inches. Authentication is expected to use Touch ID rather than Face ID. The device is expected to be powered by the A20 chip and Apple’s self-developed C2 modem, with a starting price estimated at around $2,000. The production base in Vietnam has a total of approximately 80 production lines, of which about 50 are currently operational. The initial order of 3 million units is relatively conservative for this production capacity, leaving ample room for ramping up production.