On July 7 Patently Apple reported that all of Apple's iPhone 12 models would be offering OLED Displays. For the last two years Apple's entry iPhone models have come with LCD displays. The likely reason for the big shift to using OLED displays on all iPhone 12 models this year is because Apple was forced to pay Samsung somewhere north of $900 million for not purchasing enough OLED displays as per their contract. That was definitely the needed incentive for Apple to make a shift this year so that the volume of OLED display orders don't miss their target ever again. That's a big win for Apple fans who usually purchase the entry level iPhone.

In that light, it's being reported today that Apple’s new iPhone 12 series launching later this year will be a significant boost for Samsung's growth in flexible OLED displays. Samsung Display is the official supplier for three out of four models for the iPhone 12 series. Samsung is expected to ship 70 million units of flexible OLED panels for Apple while LG will ship 18 million units, the South Korean research firm said.

Samsung’s shipment to the Cupertino is a significant rise from the 48 million units it shipped last year due to Apple's decision to expand flexible OLED to all new iPhones including entry level models unlike the past.

Shipment of Samsung's flexible OLED to Chinese smartphone OEMs will also triple this year which will make up for an expected decline of 17% for the upcoming Galaxy Note 20, according to UBI Research.   

UBI's report further noted that the total shipment for flexible OLED panels this year __ which includes LG Display, BOE and other vendors to Samsung's __ will be 215 million units. This will grow to 257.7 million units in 2021 and 320.4 million units in 2022 and 353.3 million units in 2023.

In 2023, flexible OLED panel shipment will overtake those of rigid OLED panels for the first time, it said. This growth will mostly be led by Apple’s wide adoption of flexible OLED panels for its iPhone line-ups.