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Aug 12
Apple presses Samsung Display and LG Display for lower iPhone 18 OLED prices
Apple has asked Samsung Display and LG Display to sharply reduce OLED panel prices for the iPhone 18 as it works to offset rising production costs, according to South Korean media reports. The price pressure is intensifying competition among panel makers, with cost control becoming increasingly important alongside technology in supplier negotiations.

Qisda Chairman Peter Chen said infrastructure is the foundation that must first be built as AI compute demand surges. He said Qisda will not be absent from the fast-growing race, as the company steps up work on AI servers, data centers, 1.6T switches, and silicon photonics (SiPh).

Foxconn said its decade-long partnership with Sharp has entered a new growth phase, as the Taiwanese electronics group expands into AI servers, semiconductors, robotics, and next-generation communications. The comments, made at Foxconn's second quarter 2026 investor conference on August 12, came as the two companies marked 10 years since Foxconn completed its investment in Sharp.

Samsung Electronics is set to increase its TV LCD panel purchases in 2026, even as global shipments of TV LCDs are forecast to decline. The buying shift will favor BOE Technology Group and reduce Samsung's reliance on TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology (TCL CSOT), according to ZDNet Korea, citing market research firm Omdia.

Samsung Electronics is expected to double its purchases of TV LCD panels from BOE in 2026 while cutting orders from CSOT, as Samsung and LG Electronics rebalance their supplier mixes in an LCD market increasingly dominated by Chinese panel makers.

Apple's new product shipments are likely to be delayed, with supply chain sources saying a model originally slated for shipment in the fourth quarter of 2026 may slip to the first quarter of 2027. Apple is also expected to keep rolling out new OLED devices from late 2026 into early 2027.
Taiwanese display driver IC (DDI) maker Himax Technologies announced its latest financial results and outlook for the third quarter of 2026, with second-quarter revenue beating expectations, mainly driven by a recovery in demand for automotive display ICs.

Ennostar Holdings is targeting a return to full-year profitability after stronger seasonal demand, asset-disposal gains, and a sharp rise in memory prices boosted second-quarter 2026 earnings and unexpectedly revived demand for RGB direct-view LCD TVs. The company said high memory costs are prompting some TV brands to favor RGB backlight solutions over OLED models because they offer lower system costs while delivering improved picture quality.

LCD TV panel prices fell across the board in July and have extended their decline in August as high utilization at makers' high-generation lines has kept the supply and demand situation from improving, even as brands stepped up procurement for the traditional third-quarter stocking season. Industry sources said the sector is pursuing a strategy of "trading volume for price," with Black Friday and Single's Day demand failing to stop the slide.

IT panel demand weakened in the third quarter, with both monitors and notebook panels facing a demand correction after early restocking in the first half of the year. But with chip and other component costs remaining high and panel makers seeing limited room for profit, suppliers are showing little willingness to cut prices, while brand customers have not intensified pricing pressure, leaving August IT panel prices likely to stay flat.
Raydium Semiconductor said its third-quarter 2026 momentum is likely to ease after customers pulled in orders for smartphone OLED display driver ICs in the second quarter. The Taiwan-based display driver IC maker reported second-quarter revenue of NT$6.82 billion, up 25.4% quarter-over-quarter and 16.6% year-over-year, as early stocking helped lift sales across its three main product lines.

AI-driven demand for advanced packaging is giving old-generation panel fabs and equipment new value. As Taiwan's panel makers accelerate the phaseout of LCD capacity at the 5.5 generation and below, they are splitting into two tracks: selling factories to foundries and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers, or keeping lines in-house to develop fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP), through-glass via (TGV), redistribution layer (RDL), and glass core technologies.