Samsung used to be a top smartphone OEM in China, well ahead of Huawei and Apple. Today Samsung is no longer on the top five list and has been wiped out in China which began with the Galaxy Note 7 fires that angered Chinese consumers. Today, China's display leader BOE is a looming threat to Samsung Display business. If BOE is successful with Apple, Samsung's leadership in displays will suffer.

With Samsung still being the leader in OLED displays, they decided to place orders for OLED displays from China's BOE for their lower-end Galaxy smartphones. How odd. In recent days Samsung has gotten the news out that BOE displays failed their quality tests. Didn't they have to pass a quality test before giving BOE orders for the displays?

While most tech media sites are eating up this story that's coming from a tiny unknown tech blog, you have to question the motive of Samsung wanting to stick BOE with the stigma label of not being able to make quality displays.

Samsung wanted dirt cheap OLED displays and not BOE's higher-end displays and so branding BOE as a company that makes poor OLED displays in general only plays well for Samsung who fears China's BOE long term. Especially now that BOE has been Apple's trust in delivering quality on time. Apple has been using BOE for LCD displays and had decided to have BOE enter their all-important iPhone supply chain (01 & 02) .

The DDaily report states: "According to the 10-day industry [whatever that means], the BOE in China did not pass Samsung electronics' quality test."

The report further claimed that "BoE is struggling to expand its OLED business," said a display industry insider. Apple's iPhone 12 panel, scheduled for release in the second half of the year, failed to deliver the initial volume." Is Samsung the industry insider? What credible source has surfaced to confirm that news about BOE's iPhone 12 orders?   

I understand that rumors are just that, rumors, and you take them with a grain of salt. However today's rumor seems to be exalted more as fact and have already spread like fire. Samsung's marketing team must be thrilled with this latest FUD campaign.

While only time will tell if BOE will successfully deliver OLED displays for a single iPhone 12 model this year as reported, for now, Samsung leaking selective information about BOE's poor OLED quality is just too convenient. BOE is first and foremost a Samsung competitor and more importantly a threat to their business with Apple going forward.