Apple is bringing forward its plans for OLED display technology in order to get it into the iPhone 7s in time for 2017, reports claim. The report we covered in January coming out of Korea claimed that Samsung is already beginning this year with the OLED sheet production. A new report, however, claims that the company is now planning to do so by next year. This is because Apple is hoping to launch the OLED iPhone to the market as soon as possible.
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A September 2015 report said that Apple was looking at taking advantage of the capabilities of OLED technology by using an OLED display for a future iPhone model with a curved design.
Currently Apple uses IPS LCD displays in its iPhones.
With the exception of Samsung, which has succeeded in commercializing OLED panels for smartphone applications, most of the manufacturers mentioned by media so far are still in the process of expanding OLED production capacity, such as LG Display, JOLED and Japan Display. By leaving it until the iPhone 7s, Apple will be offering customers that little bit extra incentive to upgrade. OLED displays lead to sharper and brighter images and hues and consume less power compared to LCDs. Put another way, how much does the iPhone’s specific feature set play into the slowing growth of Apple’s handset business?
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Chinese website Nikkei, via Apple Insider, reported that Apple has asked LG and Samsung, the two leading names in OLED, to see whether they could churn out the required number of OLED screens in time for the launch of the iPhone 7S, or mooted iPhone Pro, in 2017. Each crystal acts a bit like a shutter that either blocks light or allows it to pass through when an electric current passes through it. However, because the backlight illuminates pixels en masse, LCDs can suffer from weaker blacks and poorer contrast ratios due to the backlight showing through. Technically, the OLED display panels are thinner than LCD technology.
