Apple reportedly taps Samsung to supply 5.5" OLED iPhone panels in 2017

Riding on the back of rumors that Apple plans to make the switch to OLED display technology, a report on Thursday claims Samsung has won a three-year contract to supply the iPhone maker with 5.5-inch panels starting in 2017.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Korea Herald reports Samsung's display manufacturing arm will provide Apple with 100 million 5.5-inch OLED panels per year in a deal worth $2.59 billion. Details of the arrangement are scarce, but industry watchers believe the contract will run for at least three years.

Today's report jibes with a rumor from early March that claimed Apple reached out to both LG and Samsung to discuss the viability of ramping up OLED production for a 2017 iPhone model. As the world's two leading suppliers of OLED panels, LG and Samsung are clear choices for Apple, which needs reliable production at scale to meet the demands of its customers. In December, a report suggested Apple would likely look to the two Korean companies for initial orders.

Apple has long been rumored to move its flagship smartphone product away from LCD displays, but OLED suppliers lack the production capacity required to keep pace with brisk iPhone sales. Parts makers are taking notice, however, as LG last year announced plans to build out an advanced OLED plant, and in January was said to be ramping up curved panel production for 2017.

Samsung's supposed contribution of 5.5-inch panels does not line up with predictions from noted insider Ming-Chi Kuo, who last month said Apple would market a 5.8-inch AMOLED iPhone as part of next year's lineup. Taking on a "glass sandwich" design reminiscent of iPhone 4/4s, the 2017 handset is expected to feature both a curved front and back.

Kuo said the 5.8-inch AMOLED model will either be tacked on to Apple's existing 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone formats, or completely replace the 5.5-inch TFT-LCD model, depending on supply.

25 Comments

misa 827 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

Pfft. I'd put money on AMOLED's not going into iPhones. iPod's maybe.

Mainly there are two concerns: Battery life, and Screen life/quality. Currently AMOLED's wear out extremely quickly, if they're don't maintain 80% of the quality in 7 years, then they're not worth switching to. If the battery life isn't improved by at least 20% in the switch, then it also isn't worth it.

cnocbui 3612 comments · 17 Years

misa said:

Pfft. I'd put money on AMOLED's not going into iPhones. iPod's maybe.

Mainly there are two concerns: Battery life, and Screen life/quality. Currently AMOLED's wear out extremely quickly, if they're don't maintain 80% of the quality in 7 years, then they're not worth switching to. If the battery life isn't improved by at least 20% in the switch, then it also isn't worth it.

iPods are pretty much dead due to mobile phones. A 5.5" iPod is unlikely. The display quality of OLED is ahead of LCD.

I have an OLED screened phone I have been using for 6 years and I would be extremely unusual in using a phone for that long. Why do you say an OLED screened phone has to last 7 years. How many people are still using a 3GS?

Anyway, you and Foggyhill are just going to have do some serious BSing and backpedaling when the OLED screened iPhones do arrive to switch to claiming they are now obviously superior to current LCDs, because Apple are now using them. I have a few theories about what rationale will be used to explain why AMOLEDs were inferior when Samsung were featuring them in their flagship devices but Apple fairy dust suddenly makes them superior.

macplusplus 2116 comments · 9 Years

That news is cooked and served again and again to manipulate oled prices but Apple will never go oled. Why would it? It has a huge LCD business with its computers, tablets and phones. Oled is crap because the white color consumes more energy than LCD. This is why oled phones have huge batteries and consequently gigantic unmanageable screens. Can you imagine a 5K oled iMac?

macplusplus said:

That news is cooked and served again and again to manipulate oled prices but Apple will never go oled. Why would it? It has a huge LCD business with its computers, tablets and phones. Oled is crap because the white color consumes more energy than LCD. This is why oled phones have huge batteries and consequently gigantic unmanageable screens.

Every colour on a LCD, including 'attempts' at black, consume energy. White may consume more energy with an OLED, but everything else consumes less, and black, nothing at all. My Nokia has an amazing feature in the settings, you can choose whether to have a light or dark OS theme. If it had an OLED screen and was set to dark, it would consume less power than it currently does with it's LCD screen. I have it set to dark anyway as I prefer it, particularly in low light.

Apple will never go OLED - right, so what type of display does the Watch use? Apple has no LCD business. They don't manufacture stuff so can just buy whatever they think is best for their products.

OLED phones have gigantic batteries so they can last longer between charges. When I bought my Samsung Wave with its 3.5" OLED screen, the equivalent Apple phone was the iP4. The Wave had a 1500 mah battery while the iP4 had a 1420 mah battery. They both used pretty much the same processor, Samsungs's Hummingbird, which Apple used a very slight variation of they dubbed the A4. 2G standby time of my Wave - 600 hours. 2g standby time of the iP4 - 300 hours. 3G standby time of the Wave - 550 hours vs 300 for the iP4.

The Wave had the best battery life of any phone as tested by GSM Arena, for years until it was finally dethroned.

Posted in: Mobile phones

Samsung S8500 Wave is our new battery life champion

The Bada-running Samsung S8500 Wave withstood so much torture that at one point we were wondering if it would ever die. Well it finally did after 3 and a half days
http://blog.gsmarena.com/the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king-samsung-s8500-wave-is-the-new-battery-life-champion/
When the battery was new, I used to only have to charge it once a week, sometimes twice if I was using it more than normal.

So there goes that little misconception of yours.

cnocbui said:

macplusplus said:

That news is cooked and served again and again to manipulate oled prices but Apple will never go oled. Why would it? It has a huge LCD business with its computers, tablets and phones. Oled is crap because the white color consumes more energy than LCD. This is why oled phones have huge batteries and consequently gigantic unmanageable screens.

Apple will never go OLED - right, so what type of display does the Watch use? Apple has no LCD business. They don't manufacture stuff so can just buy whatever they think is best for their products.

So there goes that little misconception of yours.

Apple going oled on the watch proves it won't go oled in its computing products, Watch is not a computer it is just a display extension to the iPhone. It is proof because of the way it uses oled on the Watch: all Watch faces are white on black, there is no white background on the watch. The way Apple uses oled, without white background, proves the truth of the claim regarding the white color burning more energy, and also proves Apple will never use oled in its computing products, I.e. Macs, iPhones and iPads. Being a computing giant makes a difference in every component's market...