Apple may switch to OLED iPhones in 2018 – a year earlier than predicted

Do you remember how we told you this March that Apple might switch to using OLED screens in all iPhones it produces, by 2019? Well, we’ve received some news from Nikkei today that suggests we could see an OLED-only iPhone lineup, as early as the second half of 2018.

With regards to what we can expect this year, Taipei-based Yutana Investment Consulting has said that it expects that Apple would ship up to 90 million units by the end of 2017, half of which will sport an OLED setup. You know what this means, right?

It means that Nikkei’s allegation from March this year, and many others’ afterwards, that Apple will release an anniversary OLED iPhone, could indeed prove correct. The recent report suggests that, apart from the premium iPhone 8, Cupertino will launch two LCD devices this autumn, which could turn out to be the last of their kind to sport liquid crystals, instead of organic light-emitting diodes in their displays.

It’s worth to say that the report explicitly states that it’s ‘tentative’ that the full switch to OLED will indeed happen by the end of 2018, but apparently there’s still a possibility. Should Apple truly move to OLED displays for the iPhone in 2018, some tipsters have suggested it may struggle to source all needed panels, as production may not be on par with demand.

It is also unclear whether Samsung is to be Apple’s exclusive partner for the manufacturing of OLED display units. It is expected that the iPhone-maker will continue to source LCD screens from Sharp and JDI, but we have no information as to how or if their partnership will develop in the light of Apple’s OLED switch. On a separate note, earlier reports suggested that Samsung is going to double its OLED output in 2018, in order to meet demand for iPhone 9 screens, but now it seems that more iPhone models will benefit from an OLED display next year.

Two things are kind of clear, though. First, we are beginning to see the potential in Samsung’s 2-year-long, $9 billion-worth OLED supply deal with Apple, as Cupertino’s move to OLED iPhones could come earlier than expected. Secondly, we have yet another not-so-unreliable indication that Apple has an OLED anniversary handset in the kitchen. So get your forks and knives! Or credit cards…

Source: Nikkei via MacRumours