If you’re fascinated enough by Apple’s new folding iPhone to splash $2,000, Samsung would actually be getting a $250 cut from the purchase. Not some third-party hardware producers, but the company itself. 

The intel comes from a Chinese leaker on Weibo. Apple reportedly has a contract with Samsung to use its display tech for the new iPhone Duo.  

Samsung Pioneered the Folding Screen, Now It’s Cashing In

When engineering the first foldable iPhone, Apple tried to shop around, as it always does. The company usually keeps prices down by acquiring two similar suppliers. 

This time there was no second shop. LG Display still cannot make a folding phone screen. BOE makes them for Huawei, but Apple rates their quality and reliability too low to use.

That left one seller, Samsung.

“Apple was seemingly forced to accept the arrangement because no other firm was able to supply the required screens,” William Gallagher wrote in the AppleInsider on Friday.

A normal iPhone screen costs Apple roughly $70. The folding screen is three times more expensive. So, the screen alone accounts for more than 10% of the phone’s retail price.

Roughly $2 Billion Paid To Apple’s Biggest Rival

Citi expects Apple to sell 7.3 million Duos in year one. At $250 a screen, that is close to $1.8 billion flowing to Samsung Display.

Samsung will definitely spend some of it fighting Apple, seeing as the two make what is arguably the top phone brands in the world.

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold sits on the same shelves as iPhone Duo. The company says the newest model drew more iPhone switchers than any previous model.

Despite the weight of the $250 spend, Apple (AAPL) traded near $332 on Friday, up about 1.9% and close to a record.

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Apple unveiled the Duo that day, at John Ternus’s first keynote as chief executive. He inherited a company that wins by controlling its suppliers.

For the next three years, on the one part that makes a folding iPhone fold, he does not control anything.

Source: BeInCrypto