Apple Pushing Samsung To Cut The Price On Displays For iPhone: Report

Apple apparently isn't giving up on its quest to reduce the pricing for its upcoming iPhone lineup.

After a report emerged last week saying that Apple may be unable to lock down LG as a second supplier of OLED displays for the next iPhones, a new report says that Apple is pushing Samsung -- it's current display supplier -- to reduce the cost of the display panels.

The Digitimes report says that Apple is negotiating to reduce the cost of an OLED panel to $100, from $110.

[Related: Apple Struggling To Cut Back On Use Of Samsung Displays In iPhone]

The move may be part of an attempt to help the upcoming iPhone releases, expected this fall, to grab more consumer appeal with a lower price than the $999 iPhone X.

Analyst Neil Campling of Mirabaud Securities last week predicted that the iPhone X will be taken off the market this year, as many consumers have been staying away due to its high price. "The iPhone X is dead," Campling wrote in a note to investors, according to CNBC.

The Digitimes report estimates that the OLED panel represents roughly a third of the total cost of producing an iPhone X.

Released in November, the iPhone X is the first Apple smartphone to feature an OLED display, which provides more-vibrant colors than the standard LCD. But Apple has had to rely on rival Samsung to provide the display panels.

Apple had been seeking to make LG a second OLED supplier to reduce dependence on Samsung. But a report in the Wall Street Journal last week indicated that LG has fallen behind schedule, leading to mixed opinions inside Apple about whether LG will be able to provide OLED displays for the fall 2018 iPhones.

Separate reports suggest that Apple will abandon the traditional top-and-bottom display bezel design with this fall's iPhone launch, and fully embrace the nearly edge-to-edge design of the iPhone X.

Two new iPhone models, in 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch sizes, will use OLED display technology, according to previous notes from well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities. The Digitimes report, citing industry sources, also points to these two sizes as the upcoming OLED iPhone models that Apple has in the works for the fall launch.