Samsung Display Plans To Send 8-9 Million Foldable OLED Panels To Apple By The End Of Year
Apr 15, 2026
On 13th Apr, Samsung Display confirmed that plan to start mass production of OLED panels for Apple's first foldable product since late June, which expect shipments in July.
The foldable's inner screen will be 7.5 inches, slightly smaller than Samsung Electronics' own upcoming foldable with a 8 inch class inner display. FYI, last year's Glaxy Z Fold 7 from Samsung Electronics came with a 8.0 inch inner screen.
To sources, Samsung Display is looking to produce betwen 8~9 million foldable panels for Apple before year's end. That can enough to cover around 7-8 million finished devices. It's quite common for the panel shipments to come in higher than actual device numbers, mainly because of yield rate in final assembly.
There's an industry insider noted: Compare to earlier expections that Samsung Display would start shipping foldable panels to Apple in June, the timeline a little slippped. But original June volumes were only around 500,000 units, the overal impact is quite few. Now most in the industry expect Apple unveil its first foldable product in September of the year.
The report from market research firm TrendForce, and out on 13rd Apr, predicts Apple could grab about 19.3% of the foldable phone market in 2026. With Apple entering the space, current leaders Samsung Electronics and Huawei are expected to see their shares drop – from 38.1% and 36.1% in 2025 down to 30.1% and 29.3% in 2026, respectively.
A lot hinges on whether Apple's foldable can meet what consumers are really hoping for – especially fixing that stubborn "crease" issue. Interestingly, the industry's approach to solving the crease problem is shifting. Instead of focusing mainly on mechanical hinge design, efforts are now leaning more toward materials science, specifically controlling the neutral plane within multi-layer structures.
The crease happens when layers inside the panel shift out of alignment, creating tensile stress in certain spots. To tackle this, companies are working on new ways to manage stress by adjusting the elastic modulus of the materials themselves.
