“Analysts are pouring cold water on a report that Apple Inc. plans to use next-generation, OLED screens for all of its new iPhone models next year,” Min Jeong Lee and Debby Wu report for Bloomberg. “The article in South Korea’s Electronic Times, if true, would be negative for major manufacturers like Japan Display Inc. and Sharp Corp., which build LCDs that are used in many phones, but a positive for OLED technology makers like Universal Display Corp. Japan Display shares fell 8 percent Tuesday, while Sharp declined 3 percent. Universal Display shares climbed 4 percent.”
“There are several reasons why Apple’s switch to all-OLED phones is unlikely,” Lee and Wu report. “JPMorgan analyst Jay Kwon said it’s too early for Apple to make such a decision and the OLED screens would make the devices more expensive, defeating the purpose of a cheaper LCD model due out later this year.”
“Using only organic light-emitting diode screens for iPhones would also be challenging, given the sheer volume that Apple sells: 216 million devices in 2017. Samsung Display Co., part of Samsung Electronics Co., is the sole supplier of OLED screens for high-end Apple phones, but the manufacturer also uses them for its own smartphones, limiting supplies. Other OLED screen makers, like LG Display Co., haven’t shown the ability to churn out Samsung-like capacities,” Lee and Wu report. “Apple is also working on its own technology for displays, people with knowledge of the plans have said. Called MicroLED, the screens use different light-emitting compounds than the current OLED displays and promise to make future gadgets slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: While we wait for Apple’s MicroLED to bear fruit (if they ever do), as long as we can get our 6.5-inch OLED iPhones and, hopefully, OLED iPads this year, Apple can offer a lower-cost LCD iPhone for as long as they need to – the technology is already excellent.
As per Apple’s current iPhone X’s OLED display:
Apple individually calibrates every single iPhone X unit before it leaves the factory. And Apple’s OLED iPhone X’s feature TrueTone. Those are two big reasons, among others, why Apple’s iPhone X displays are particularly special vs. other Samsung-made OLED screens. — MacDailyNews, November 13, 2017
“Apple’s version of an OLED screen is manufactured by Samsung, but is not an off-the-shelf Samsung part. It’s a custom-built, diamond-pattern OLED array that was built to Apple specifications and driven by an Apple display driver. This screen is not comparable to screens found in Samsung devices on a variety of levels.” – TechCrunch, October 31, 2017
SEE ALSO:
MicroLED is the first new display technology in a decade. Can it beat OLED? – March 27, 2018
Samsung, Sharp and other stocks fall on report that Apple is working its own MicroLED displays – March 19, 2018
Apple is developing its own MicroLED displays in a secret manufacturing facility – March 19, 2018
Apple hits speed bump in Micro LED development – November 20, 2017
Stop the fake news! Apple’s iPhone X OLED display is not just like any other Samsung offering – November 16, 2017
DisplayMate: Apple’s iPhone X has the most color accurate display we’ve ever measured; it is visually indistinguishable from perfect – November 8, 2017
Apple plans micro-LED displays for wearable devices; could come as soon as 2018 – June 8, 2017
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple prepping 10.5-inch iPad Pro, revolutionary’ flexible AMOLED iPad – August 15, 2016
Apple’s research in micro-LED displays highlights a fundamental strategic shift – June 29, 2016
Apple acquires 21 LuxVue patents with some using synthetic sapphire – May 6, 2014
Apple acquires LuxVue, maker of power efficient micro-LED technology – May 2, 2014
Anybody with less than half a brain could’ve figured out how loony this rumor is/was.
I think a cathode ray tube iPhone would be bonkers.