Apple supplier LG Display to spend nearly $1B on fourth OLED display plant

Since 2014, LG Display has indicated plans to boost production capacity for small- to mid-sized OLED screens used by clients like Apple and sibling firm LG Electronics, Reuters reported. Work on the new factory will start in the third quarter of 2015, with mass production beginning in the first half of 2017.

When it is fully operational, the facility should have double the capacity of the company's present small- to mid-sized OLED line. In the meantime, some large LCD production capacity will be converted to OLED for the sake of cost competitiveness.

LG Display is one of Apple's primary LCD panel manufacturers alongside Samsung and Japan Display. Although Apple doesn't officially disclose its supplier connections, LG is believed to be responsible for a number of Mac, iPhone, and iPad displays, and the flexible AMOLED panel on the Apple Watch.

The company's plans may hint that it expects Apple to favor OLED moving forward. Although the Watch is the only Apple product with OLED so far, the technology is coming down in price and could be adopted for future iPhones and iPads as well.