Apple Reportedly Investing in LG Display's New OLED Plant, Will Be Solely Devoted to iPhones

While Samsung remains the world's the dominant supplier of OLED panels and will supply Apple with up to 92 million OLED screens over the next two years, a new report today suggests that Apple is looking to diversify its supply chain by investing $1.75-2.62 billion into LG Display's OLED manufacturing. Specifically, Apple and LG Display are said to be considering a deal that would funnel Apple's investment into LG Display's new "E6" OLED plant, which would be "exclusively dedicated to Apple orders" (via The Korea Herald).

LG Display's production on OLED screens is still far off, with its output for Apple predicted to start sometime in early 2019, which still places Samsung as the reigning supplier of OLED components for Apple over the next few years. No deal between Apple and LG Display is confirmed yet, with the companies having "tentatively" agreed upon the investment plans and more finalized details expected to come later in the month.

Apple is reportedly in talks with LG Display to invest about 2 to 3 trillion won (US$1.75-2.62 billion) into the Korean display maker’s new OLED production lines exclusively dedicated to Apple orders.

“Samsung Display is the only display maker that meets Apple’s strict quality criteria for now,” said an industry source on condition of anonymity. “LG Display is said to be meeting about 70 percent level of the requirements, while Chinese display makers are still struggling to catch up with that of LG.”

For the 2017 line of iPhones, rumors have been pointing towards the "iPhone 8" as having an OLED screen, while the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus will include standard LCD panels. The iPhone 8 is believed to include a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge display, glass body, wireless charging, no physical Home button, and potentially 3D sensing features for facial recognition.

A report out of Korea earlier this year stated that Apple aims to make every iPhone with an OLED screen by 2019, which would fall in line with today's report of Apple's and LG Display's deal being eyed for a 2019 production ramp-up on OLED screens.

Tags: OLED, LG Display

Top Rated Comments

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Sunny1990

25 months ago

Good,Finally they are making progress towards making the screens better. Lcds are nice, but OLED looks better in my opinion.

Rating: 4 Votes

69Mustang

25 months ago

Ever since, Apple left Gorilla Glass...

Can I get a source on that?

Rating: 3 Votes

kdarling

25 months ago

How could Micro-Led be "Overhyped" if it's not even available and or in mass production?

I think they meant on the internet, where breathless bloggers and fanboys get hyped up over some cool tech name. Kind of like with "Liquid Metal", which is not liquid and normally looks like pewter.

CLEDIS has a resolution of less than 20 PPI. Twenty. Even Sony's first attempt at a mLED consumer TV was only 40 PPI. A retina display is more like 300 PPI. "Micro LED" is not yet "micro" in mass production.

"MicroLED" is just a name that sounds cooler than saying "conventional gallium-nitride LED" (that is, oldtime inorganic LED versus organic LED or OLED).

On the flip-side... I've never looked at any iPhone and thought the screens looked bad/weird.

There's been many threads in the past about iPhone screens that were too yellow or too blue.

OLED screens are often set to a bright color mode to show off., but the mode can be changed. Probably Apple will default to the more realistic mode.

Rating: 2 Votes

GrumpyMom

25 months ago

MicroLed might have some problems we aren't aware of when they tried to make displays large enough for a phone.

Honestly OLED still has a ways to go. I love how battery life is extended when you go to dark mode on apps and themes on the Samsung S8+. But a lot of S8's and S8+ that I saw, including my own, were plagued with really noticeable pink "stains" that Samsung had to address with a software update that let us fine tune the calibration of our displays in order to remove it.

On one Note 7 my husband had, the display had a dark dingy look and an aqua tint. There are variances in display evenness and tint among OLED displays. So we aren't going to be free from the display lottery we have been playing all along with past and current LCD iPhone displays. As long as everyone is aware of what OLED's potential benefits and shortcomings are, that's great. I just worry that some folks unbridled enthusiasm means they might not be aware the OLED displays still have their share of problems. That being said, I'm glad to see them coming to an iPhone because the advantages to battery life are quite beneficial.

I hope iOS and apps also get a dark mode. I'd like that even on my current iPhone. I enjoy the look on my Kindle reader.

Rating: 2 Votes

blackcrayon

25 months ago

Good,Finally they are making progress towards making the screens better. Lcds are nice, but OLED looks better in my opinion.

I wouldn't say "finally", Apple has been making screens better almost every year. It's nice that they can "finally" make the jump to OLED though- the tech is mature, and they'll soon be able to supply enough high end parts to satisfy iPhone-like numbers.

Rating: 2 Votes

Michael Scrip

25 months ago

On one Note 7 my husband had, the display had a dark dingy look and an aqua tint. There are variances in display evenness and tint among OLED displays.

I've noticed that too.

It seems like every time I see a Samsung phone... it has a bluish-greenish tint to it. I've seen it for years... starting with the original Galaxy S

On the flip-side... I've never looked at any iPhone and thought the screens looked bad/weird.

So let's hope Apple keeps nice colors if they switch to other screen technologies.

Rating: 2 Votes

Michael Scrip

25 months ago

There's been many threads in the past about iPhone screens that were too yellow or too blue.

I have no doubt that there have been some funky screens out of a billion iPhones shipped.

I was simply reporting that I see blue-green screens on Samsung phones... definitely more often than I see odd-looking iPhone screens. That's the reason I replied to GrumpyMom's post ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-reportedly-investing-in-lg-displays-new-oled-plant-will-be-solely-devoted-to-iphones.2054791/#post-24763971') in the first place. :)

OLED screens are often set to a bright color mode to show off., but the mode can be changed.

Probably Apple will default to the more realistic mode.

Yep... that's why I said "So let's hope Apple keeps nice colors if they switch to other screen technologies." :D

Rating: 1 Votes

Avieshek

25 months ago

How could Micro-Led be "Overhyped" if it's not even available and or in mass production? And actually, Apple purchased a company back in 2014 known as Luxeview", Who manufactures and develops micro LED panels. So the experimentation is there, but it doesn't mean it's "Overhyoed" if it's not ready for release or mass production. Micro LED is still new technology that's evolving and will be years before it's ready beyond its infancy.

The link below discusses micro LED and it's experimentation phase and where it will ultimately lead to, followed by Apples purchase of Luxeview.

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/10/26/micro-led-battery-life/

I'm curious about µLED too, but that seems a few years off still. New tech like that also starts on a small scale, because of low yields, so you don't waste as much material, so it's gonna go in the watch first.

In the mean time, it's wise to invest in OLED, as long as they can work around its limitations. I don't want a screen that gradually shifts colours over two years.

Sony already has a TV showcased with microLED and the introduction is in one of their official websites as well. It's marketed under CLEDIS technology by Sony (their own branding) than microLED directly, though with the mention of Crystal LED (because they indeed are crystals).

Not to the one that spoke humbly. Keep living under Apple Umbrella. Must have been proud mentioning a link to LuxVue (Seriously?). When growing outside 9to5Mac & MacRumors is possible, than ever mention links.

Rating: 1 Votes

lunarworks

25 months ago

I'm looking forward to µLED, but until I see it in a retail (not trade show) product it's still a future technology.

As for Sony, they had an OLED TV on sale nearly 10 years ago, way before anyone else. It was 11" and cost $2,500.

Rating: 1 Votes