Surge in OLED equipment orders linked to Apple's upcoming iPhones - report

A major leap in display manufacturing equipment orders may strongly suggest that Apple is preparing to build OLED-equipped iPhones, possibly in time for 2017 models, a report said on Monday.

The world's biggest producer of such equipment, Applied Materials, recently disclosed a fourfold spike in orders in its second quarter — nearing what the company would normally witness in an entire year, Bloomberg said. Notably the company's CEO, Gary Dickerson, said that the orders represented "sustainable growth," and hinted that Apple suppliers were the main driver.

"We all know who is the leader in terms of mobile products," Dickerson said.

The company indicated that it can take up to three quarters to make, ship, and install its equipment, pointing to next year as the earliest window the new gear could be put into play. The jump in orders coincides with three Apple suppliers — Samsung, LG Display, and Foxconn's Sharp — all boosting spending on display technology. LG and Sharp in particular have explicitly said they're investing in OLED.

Early rumors have claimed that Apple's flagship 2017 iPhones could have edge-to-edge OLED or AMOLED displays, embedding camera, Touch ID, and other components inside them. OLED panels are thinner and curvable, and tend to consume less power while also providing higher contrast, since pixels can be independently lit instead of depending on a combination of backlighting and filters.

This year's iPhones are expected to stick with conventional LCD technology. They should see upgrades in other areas however, particularly on Plus models, which may have dual-lens cameras, a Smart Connector, and/or 3 gigabytes of RAM.

7 Comments

sirlance99 1301 comments · 11 Years

About 8 years ago

Can't wait to finally have OLED screens.

badmonk 1332 comments · 11 Years

and another iPhone 6-like year of sales with a radical new iPhone...though Wall Street will find a way to misconstrue it...

mike1 3432 comments · 10 Years

What is the supposed advantage of an OLED screen on a phone? I know they produce blacker blacks which makes it nice on a TV or even an iPad, not sure what else it would add to the phone. Previously, the negative aspect was supposedly battery life. Just wondering what this would add.

zoetmb 2655 comments · 17 Years

This could just as well be orders from UHD TV set manufacturers, since the industry (except perhaps for Sony) is moving towards OLED. Current OLED TVs are a mixed bag: they do have far better blacks and because they don't use backlighting, they don't get an unwanted glow on high contrast scenes, but they've been prone to other display anomalies.

Aside from a smoother front and fewer parts, I don't see what the user benefits are for an edge-to-edge display, but OLED should look better. I'd like to see improvements in audio, photo and video quality. Just about anything else it needs is iOS related, like much more powerful Siri functionality. One should be able to instruct almost every app using Siri.

jurassic 94 comments · 15 Years

sirlance99 said:

Can't wait to finally have OLED screens.

Why? Years ago, OLED used a lot less energy than LCD displays, but not any more. Years ago, OLED was a lot brighter than LCD, but not any more. Also, OLED had its share of problems. Color accuracy was terrible in early screens, and colors were over saturated, but that has improved. And, blue phosphors would fade much faster than red and green, but that has improved too. A good example of how far LCD technology has advanced is in the 9.7" iPad Pro display. At this point, there is no great benefit to having an OLED display over an LCD display. So far we only have rumours that Apple will be using OLED in the the iPhones next year. It may happen or it may not. But either way, both display technologies have improved to be comparable in may ways, and both have their drawbacks.