Apple's first foldable bets big on South Korean supply chain

Seoul [South Korea], September 10 (ANI): Apple’s first foldable may be its most Korea-dependent iPhone yet, according to a news report by The Korea Herald. Unveiled on Wednesday and carrying the price of USD 1,999, the new iPhone Duo has an unusual supply-chain profile. 
While Apple continues to source key components worldwide, the critical part tied to its new hardware design remains concentrated in South Korea. The device relies on custom foldable screens manufactured to Apple's specifications by Samsung Display, which previously served as Apple's exclusive OLED supplier for the iPhone X in 2017.
"With the iPhone X, Samsung's OLED was a component that made the iPhone look better," the news report quoted a Korean display industry official.
"This time is different. Without the foldable panel from Samsung Display, the form factor itself simply cannot exist," the official added.
Samsung Display holds an edge from manufacturing foldable panels at commercial scale since 2019, allowing it to address challenges concerning creases, structural durability, and manufacturing yields over several hardware generations. The news report mentioned that Apple earlier agreed to source these panels exclusively from Samsung Display for up to three years.
"Apple normally puts a lot of importance on diversifying suppliers," the display industry official noted.
"If it still decided to leave the most important component of a first-generation product with one company, that tells you the alternative isn't easy right now," the official said.
The news report added that this reliance extends beyond display panels to advanced internal memory. Linda Sui, founder and principal analyst at Smart Analytics Global, stated that the phone remains dependent on South Korea for several critical and difficult-to-replace technologies.
"The clearest example is the foldable OLED display," the news report quoted Sui, noting Samsung Display's technology maturity, manufacturing experience, and capacity to satisfy Apple's standards.
"Other display manufacturers can produce high-quality foldable OLED panels," Sui said.
"But meeting Apple's requirements across all of these dimensions while supporting millions of devices consistently is a much higher bar," she added.
Rising component expenses compound the device's supply concentration. South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix dominate the global DRAM and NAND markets alongside US-based Micron. 
Citing Counterpoint Research, the Korea Herald reported that memory served as the primary driver behind an estimated nearly USD 300 increase in the bill of materials for the one-terabyte iPhone 18 Pro Max.
"Apple usually uses its enormous purchasing power to push component prices down," a Korean telecom industry official said.
"With this product, that formula may work less well for some key parts, especially memory. Other than Micron, there really aren't alternative suppliers outside Korea," the telecom official stated.
The iPhone Duo incorporates a thin chassis, dual-screen camera tools, Split View multitasking, and an all-day battery, but replaces Face ID with Touch ID and excludes the telephoto lens found on Pro devices.
"If you're paying around USD 2,000 and you lose things people associate with a flagship, consumers are going to ask, 'How is this better if it costs more and has lesser hardware?'" the telecom official said.
"Apple doesn't have to prove that it can make a foldable. Samsung has already proved that for seven years," the official added. "Apple has to prove why this foldable is worth USD 1,999." (ANI)