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Samsung To Cut OLED Production Due To Poor iPhone X Sales
Samsung's panel-making division, Samsung Display, is reportedly reducing OLED panel production at its South Chungcheong plant due to lower than expected iPhone X sales. According to Nikkei Asian Review, Samsung now plans to cover 20 million or fewer iPhone X devices for the quarter ending in March, a large decrease from the expected 45 to 50 million units. CNET reports: Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones in the quarter ending in January, down by 1 percent on the previous year. The $1,000 price tag on the iPhone X was blamed for the volume shortfall -- but also contributed to the company making record-breaking profits. Samsung did not respond to CNET's request for comment.
"iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter"
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/02/apples-iphone-x-is-the-instant-scapegoat-for-samsungs-failure-to-win-oled-orders-from-chinese-vendors.html
A story out of Japan on Friday stated that "Other smartphone makers, who Samsung had hoped would incorporate OLED panels, have been slow to make the transition due to their expense and are sticking to liquid crystal displays."" Apparently that reality doesn't sell stories, so the Nikkei Asian Review decided to just throw in Apple as being Samsung's problem to make the story a mover.
Smartphone sales fell in China overall in Q4 and yet Apple was able to buck the trend with the iPhone X being the number one smartphone around the world. In fact Kantar reported that iPhone X sales in Urban China were staggering.
During Tim Cook's summary for the holiday quarter he noted: "Our growth was broad based and a key driver was iPhone which generated it's highest revenue ever. iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter according to Canalys and it has been our best selling phone every week since it launched."
In late January Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple to end Samsung's exclusive OLED contract and Shift to a new L-Shaped Battery with Increased Capacity." In that report we also noted that China's BOE and Sharp were vying for Apple's OLED business.
Yet despite Samsung overestimating OLED display demand, the Nikkei Asian Review's report adds: "To make matters worse, Chinese OLED panel makers are expanding production capacity, heating up the price competition even more."
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
They can’t get contracts because OLED is total crap. Who in their right mind thinks they can get away with shipping a product that is designed to self-destruct?
I bought a Galaxy S7 Edge through AT&T that experienced burn-in within three months, and both they and Samsung refused to fix it under warranty. They lost a customer and created a “negative influencer” as a result.
They tried to pass off burn-in as acceptable, but consumers already voted on this feature with their dollars back in the days of CRTs. They shot themselves in the foot and deserve to bleed out.