“Apple plans to introduce organic light-emitting diode displays for iPhones starting in 2018, sending suppliers racing to fine-tune the technology and invest in capacity expansion,” Nikkei reports. “In light of the decision, South Korea’s LG Display is already planning capacity upgrades. But securing enough panels for the more than 200 million phones Apples ships globally every year will likely prove difficult. The U.S. company is thus likely to opt for offering OLED iPhones alongside those using LCD screens.”
“There are technical challenges as well. The brightness, energy-saving capacity and other functions of OLED panels tend to degrade over time,” Nikkei reports. “The companies will work over the next year or so to see whether those drawbacks can be eliminated and a stable supply of screens secured.”
“South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is currently the only company that can reliably mass-produce OLED smartphone screens. LG Display has a track record for producing OLEDs for television screens. Given this, the two companies will likely supply a large portion of Apple’s displays,” Nikkei reports. “Apple’s shift to OLED displays will have major implications for two Japanese suppliers — Sharp, which is scrambling to rebuild its faltering operations, and Japan Display, which relies on the technology giant for 30% of its business.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last month:
Our Apple Watches’ OLED displays certainly do look gorgeous. If Apple can be assured of the quality level and lifespan they require for iPhone, we could see them making the move to OLED for iPhones, too.
SEE ALSO:
Ming-Chi Kuo: No Apple iPhones with AMOLED displays until 2019 at the earliest – November 10, 2015
Apple considering OLED displays for iPhone 7/Plus – October 30, 2015