New rumor again claims Samsung cutting OLED shipments because of unexpected drop in iPhone X orders

Samsung is once again said to ship only half the number of OLED panels to Apple because of iPhone X order cuts as a result of poor demand, a questionable report again claimed on Thursday.

Samsung is expecting its 2018 operating profits from displays to fall short of some analyst estimates, Bloomberg's sources added. The company is said to be committed to OLED however, and not feeling any pressure to cut parts prices.

The cost of OLED is one reason the technology hasn't been more widely adopted, and one of the reasons the iPhone X starts at $999. Whereas the 5.5-inch LCD on the iPhone 8 Plus costs Apple about $52, IHS Markit estimates that the 5.8-inch OLED panel on the iPhone X is worth more than double — $110. Expenses could go still higher with a rumored 6.5-inch "iPhone X Plus" coming later this year.

Last month Japan's Nikkei said Samsung was planning to more than halve OLED production in response to iPhone X sales. That report was met with skepticism, in part because the publication didn't cite any sources — but Bloomberg didn't either.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone X was the top-selling iPhone every week since its November debut, but that's relative to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Shipments of the iPhone were down year-over-year when compared on a quarterly basis, but were actually higher on a weekly basis because of an extra sales week in the holiday season of 2016.

There is no evidence that Samsung's over-supply of OLED materials because of iPhone X production demands is anything more than normal seasonality changes in orders.