LTPS

For most of OLED's commercial history, the industry operated as a near-monolith: virtually every panel maker deposited RGB organic materials through a Fine Metal Mask (FMM) on 6th-generation glass (or polyimide substrates with a glass carrier), while LG Display stood as the sole practitioner of its WRGB architecture for large-area OLED production.

In recent years, we have seen the emergence of new OLED architectures, processes and materials that signal the end of this technological uniformity. In this article, we examine the different technologies, speculate how the industry is changing and where it is headed - and understand the implications for supply chain companies. 

According to reports from Korea, BOE's AMOLED shipments to Apple are increasing. BOE is currently shipping panels for Apple standard iPhone models 12 through 16 (including aftermarket panels), and also to Apple's budget smartphones (the iPhone 16e, and reportedly, also the upcoming iPhone 17e).

BOE B11 utilization rate (Display Insights)

According to the latest reports, BOE shipped 35 million iPhone AMOLED panels in 2025, and its B11 production line in Mianyang, which is where BOE produces all of its Apple's iPhone panels, is now running a 73% utilization (see graph above).

According to reports in Korea, Apple has signed up BOE as the first OLED supplier for its upcoming budget iPhone 17e smartphone, that will ship early in 2026. While BOE will supply the majority of these AMOLEDs, Samsung Display and LG Display are expected to also supply some panels to Apple.

This is a similar distribution that Apple chose for the 2025 iPhone 16e, that sports a 6.1" 1200 nits (peak) 60hz 1170x2532 AMOLED display. It is likely that the iPhone 17e will use a similar panel, and we're quite certain it will not be an LTPO OLED. Apple is aiming to ship around 8 million iPhone 17e devices in the first half of 2026.

Omdia says that in the second half of 2025, shipments of LTPO flexible AMOLED displays will surpass the shipments of flexible LTPS AMOLEDs, for the first time.

Omdia estimates that in Q3 2025, the share of LTPO OLEDs (out of the total flexible OLED market) will reach 55.3%, and it will continue to grow to 58.8% in Q4 2025, as demand for high-efficient displays in premium smartphones increases.

BOE says that it has shipped almost 140 million flexible AMOLED displays in 2024, falling a bit short of its target of 16 million units. In 2025, the company hopes to grow its shipments by 21%, reaching 170 million units.

BOE says that the main reason for not reaching its target in 2024 was that its Chongqing 6-Gen AMOLED production line encountered some technical issues,  and did not ramp up as expected. In addition, the market experienced fierce competition and the company suffered from a decline in orders from customers outside of China. A more positive reason for BOE is that it increased its LTPO capacity, which reduced total unit capacity in its fabs. 

Sources in Korea suggest that BOE struggles with supplying AMOLED panels to Apple's iPhone, and Apple may switch some of its orders to LG Display and Samsung Display.

BOE is supplying LTPS AMOLED displays to Apple's iPhone 14, 15 and 16 devices, but the company faces quality issues and Apple has rejected many of its displays. It is estimated that it will take at least 6 weeks for BOE to fix the OLED quality problems, and meanwhile since the beginning of 2024 it managed to ship only about 7-8 million panels to Apple - from orders of around 40 million units. 

There is an interesting (but unverified) report out of Korea that Apple has chosen Tianma to be its exclusive OLED display supplier for a next-generation HomePod smart speaker device, the first one with a display. The OLED HomePod will be released in 2025.

Rumors about a HomePod with a display started surfacing last year, then suggesting that the display will be a 7-inch LCD, indeed supplied by Tianma. But these new rumors suggests that Apple has opted for a higher-quality LTPS AMOLED display, sized 6.7-inch.

Omdia has updated its Apple iPad and Macbook display roadmaps, with new forecasts and information about Apple's OLED adoption plans in its IT product lines. 

According to Omdia, Apple's iPad Mini will get a 8.4-inch LTPS OLED display in 2026. In 2027, Apple will also introduce OLED displays in its iPad Aid models (11-inch and 13-inch). In 2028 Apple will revamp the OLED displays in its iPad Pro models, offering a tandem architecture, polarizer-free OLED design and LTPO backplanes.