Apple to use OLED display for iPhones

In an announcement made on November 27, LG Display said that it has plans underway to expand investment in a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel plant.

LG has already announced its historical investment of $1 billion in a 6 generation OLED line in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk Province, Korea. Earlier this year LG had a significant delay in OLED production as it experienced a gas leak, halting all production.

Construction will begin this year, with the initial investment expected to cover the P10 building itself, the foundations for its clean rooms, and the various components of infrastructure for water and power supplies. OLED displays can be more energy efficient than standard LCD panels because each pixel can be lit or darkened as necessary, removing the need to backlight every pixel. Since LG is now the only major display manufacturer supporting OLED, it seems like Apple may have little choice.

The plant will mostly make the 9th-generation-large OLED TV panels and flexible OLED panels.

“The global OLED panel market is predicted to grow from $8.7 billion in 2014 to $29.1 billion in 2022”, said market research firm HIS.

There is a growing demand for flexible OLED panels in the automotive display and smart watch sectors.

Having Apple on board might influence other display manufacturers to adopt OLED, which should help bring down the cost as competition increases. The move reportedly has LG Display already planning to upgrade it’s capacity to be able to produce a large volume of OLED display.

Expenditure in the first stage has been set at 1.84 trillion won, with production scheduled to begin in the first half of 2018.

Apple must be self-assured that these issues are now resolved (apparently with technology along with detailed in its patents employing photodiodes and changing the anode pitch in OLED screens).

Apple is considering deploying OLED displays in its next-gen iPhones instead of the LCD screens it now uses in the smartphones.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst from KGI Securities, Apple may likely adapt AMOLED displays for iPhones in the coming three years, with its main provider Foxconn now gearing up on financing the latest TFT-LCD production lines in China to support Apple’s massive production in 2018.