The search is on to identify the actual manufacturer behind the US$499 Trump Mobile T1 smartphone, as most supply chain analysts cast doubt on the claim by the US president’s family that the device could be “proudly designed and built in the United States.”
China, the world’s largest smartphone market since 2011, is also the hub of global manufacturing, with estimates ranging from a low of 60 per cent to a high of 80 per cent of worldwide production. One in three of the 187 disclosed suppliers that provide parts for Apple’s iPhones is in China.
Trump’s T1 phone, encased in gold, features an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) screen that measures 6.78 inches, with a fingerprint sensor that supports facial recognition for unlocking. It has a main camera of 50 million pixels and runs on Google’s Android 15 operating system, Trump Mobile said on its official website without naming its chip supplier.
The phone comes with a subscription called the 47 Plan, priced at US$47.45 a month, a nod to Trump’s as the 45th and 47th US president. Instead of building a new nationwide cellular network, the 47 Plan resells the capabilities of all three major US carriers – T-Mobile, T-Mobile, Verizon Communications and AT&T – for a fee.
The problem is, there are no AMOLED producers anywhere outside Asia, and the worldwide shipments are roughly equally shared by South Korean and Chinese manufacturers, said Joy Guo, the principal analyst of Omdia’s displays group. There were five AMOLED producers in China that all produced locally, while South Korean plants were within the country and in Vietnam, she said.
