Apple didn’t have a claim to all small size screens, they were the only ones who ordered them in the first place. So this isn’t their fault, though I do resent them dropping the 13 mini so suddenly (I had expected to pick one up after this announcement, but they cost the same as the newest pro…)
The small phone project is looking for existing screens so they don’t have to design and pay for the tooling to produce them.
“The problem is Apple has exclusive rights to [the iPhone Mini’s] display — so, even with the line being discontinued, [Samsung Display] isn’t going to give us access,” he told supporters last month.
Sounds like we’re splitting hairs: no other OEM is ordering the Mini-sized display, and this line certainly implies some kind of exclusivity. I’ve been following the thread on the Small Android Phone discord as well, and what I’ve seen there aligns with that understanding.
As far as I know, no small manufacturer ever gets displays built specifically for them. Even Pebble, which was a lot more popular than Small Android Phone, used preexisting displays. It just takes a lot of time, knowledge, and money to create a custom display.
Apple didn’t have a claim to all small size screens, they were the only ones who ordered them in the first place. So this isn’t their fault, though I do resent them dropping the 13 mini so suddenly (I had expected to pick one up after this announcement, but they cost the same as the newest pro…)
The small phone project is looking for existing screens so they don’t have to design and pay for the tooling to produce them.
From the article:
Sounds like we’re splitting hairs: no other OEM is ordering the Mini-sized display, and this line certainly implies some kind of exclusivity. I’ve been following the thread on the Small Android Phone discord as well, and what I’ve seen there aligns with that understanding.
As far as I know, no small manufacturer ever gets displays built specifically for them. Even Pebble, which was a lot more popular than Small Android Phone, used preexisting displays. It just takes a lot of time, knowledge, and money to create a custom display.