For years now, Apple has been expected to make the transition from LED to OLED panels in its smartphones. These rumors recently intensified as numerous sources within the industry pointed to the iPhone maker adopting OLED displays for at least one of its iPhone models coming out later this year.
Samsung has been part of these rumors for a long time as well, because its subsidiary, Samsung Display, creates most of the available OLED panels used in today’s smartphones, and is one of the few companies able to churn out the number of panels Apple would require. Last year, sources inside the Korean electronics giant, not to mention its own public financial records, pointed to a massive deal signed between Samsung Display and a third party, believed to be Apple. According to reports at the time, the deal would see Samsung Display provide Apple with 100 million OLED display panels, starting this year.
Now, a new deal between the two companies seems to have been made, according to Korean media. The new arrangement will see Samsung supply a further 60 million panels to Apple, significantly boosting Samsung Display’s share of the iPhone-maker’s business. Considering Apple sold around 200 million iPhones over its last four quarters, 160 million OLED displays seems like a huge number.
The size of that order appears even more surprising in the context of recent rumors pointing to just one iPhone model, the 10-year anniversary edition, having an OLED display, while two further “regular” models were expected to continue using LCD technology.
This increased order, which hasn’t been officially confirmed by either of the two companies, might point to Apple deciding to use OLED panels in more of its products. Or it might point to the company being extremely optimistic about the rumored 10th-anniversary iPhone.
In either case, with the next iPhone still half a year away, we’ll just have to wait until further information becomes available.
Source: The Investor