Roger Fingas
South Korean display manufacturers are trying to persuade Apple to use flexible OLED screens for future iPhones, although the first such models might not ship until 2018, a report claimed on Wednesday.
Apple is "serious" about switching iPhones from IPS to OLED technology, as it would allegedly improve areas like accuracy, brightness, and saturation, an industry source told BusinessKorea. At the moment the only Apple product with a flexible OLED display is the Apple Watch, with a screen no larger than 42 millimeters.
"It is very likely that the first flexible iPhone may be introduced in 2018, as Apple's top-tier display suppliers are working on it," the source said, referring to Samsung and LG Display, both of whom are believed to be Watch panel suppliers.
LG Display is reportedly planning to switch one of the LCD lines at its Gumi plant over to OLED to expand its general OLED capacity, with the goal of mass production in 2017.
A move to flexible OLEDs could in theory allow Apple to produce curved iPhones, possibly in the style of LG's own G Flex2, or simply phones able to bend under pressure. That could reduce the likelihood of accidental damage, with or without a case.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
63 Comments
Curved screens would not be pocket friendly and serve no benefit for me IMO...Hope they flat...
Aren't OLED's LESS accurate than IPS displays? Or is that just Samdung's variants?
Is making curved screens the only reason to move to OLED? Surely there are other reasons but for Apple only when the OLED technology is 100% guaranteed to be an improvement. In my experience Apple only adopts new technologies when Apple's engineers truly feel that technology can meet all of their stringent requirements. Other manufacturers jump on anything that seems to give them an edge even if it is not ready for prime time, then again they hang on to technologies well past their prime too! Of course Apple often lead in a new technology's deployment but that's when they have developed it in house or co developed such as Thunderbolt.
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/186904/rumor-apples-iphones-could-adopt-flexible-oled-displays-in-2018#post_2739368"]South Korean display manufacturers are trying to persuade Apple to use flexible OLED screens for future iPhones,[/quote] if true, these manufacturers have it backwards -- apple will convince [B]them[/B] of what technology they want to use, not the other way round.
[quote name="LarryMagoo" url="/t/186904/rumor-apples-iphones-could-adopt-flexible-oled-displays-in-2018#post_2739376"]Curved screens would not be pocket friendly and serve no benefit for me IMO...Hope they flat...[/quote] Last I checked my body has more curved areas than flat ones. I had a curved phone and it fit just fine in my pocket.