To what end? A shot across the bows of screen manufacturers? I suppose that's possible, to try and force screen manufacturers (i.e. Samsung) to cooperate on production costs for existing screens. But that doesn't seem like a useful negotiating tactic to me and it would probably be more useful to keep this secret until scale manufacturing deals have been signed and work has started.
It seems that having this kind of information out there would be of benefit to Apple in negotiations with screen manufacturers eg. it could make suppliers more willing to sign a long-term deal at lower rates than they might otherwise, due to the fear of being dumped in the future.
Another potential purpose for such a leak would be to boost the stock price.
A better negotiation position would have been my first guess, too.
> The screens are far more difficult to produce than OLED displays, and the company almost killed the project a year or so ago [...] consumers will probably have to wait a few years before seeing the results.
So the best-case scenario is that Apple finishes developing this technology in a few years, and the worst-case scenario is that they kill this development, which almost happened already.
This could go either way both for Apple and for screen manufacturers. It only makes sense to explore an option without all this uncertainty, by seeking a new middle ground.
Apple has frequently used exclusive advanced screen technology as a differentiating factor in their products. Retina displays, better colour fidelity, wide colour gamut, 5K, etc. Previously they have done so by working together with screen manufacturers and underwriting the development of such technologies, the tool chains and manufacturing buildout with massive (Bns of dollar) loans, but actually owning the patents, tool chain and manufacturing gives them even more control and exclusivity.
To me it depends. You might not actually want to produce your own screens, or what ever else you currently buy instead of making it yourself. Because that would require dedicated resources, diverted from your core competencies. But you might have someone, or a small team, look into it. Work out what you might need to do, what it is going to cost. Then you take that research and knock on your suppliers door and ask for a better price.
I'm not saying that is what is happening here, but it could be a viable negotiation strategy.
Samsung stock did take a hit as a result of this. Another possibility is a fabricated leak for a pump and dump style scheme.
Seems indeed very little interest for Apple. I'm sure any effect of a public leak can be as efficiently done with regular phone call. By shear size, Apple is very close to all its providers, the "pride and prejudice" drama is creative license of the media to animate what is mostly regular boring corporate interactions.
