Apple has added a petroleum refiner to its list of iPhone suppliers — but, don’t worry, we’re not set for a petrol-powered iPhone any time soon!
Instead, Apple tapped Idemitsu Kosan for its expertise in OLED technology, which the Japanese company started researching way back in the mid-1980s.
According to Bloomberg, Google’s latest Pixel smartphone and Samsung’s Galaxy phones already feature “blue pixels on the OLED screens [which] are built with Idemitsu’s materials or patents.”
The fact that Apple now relies on the company’s technology, however, boosted Idemitsu Kosan’s stock 7.6 percent. The partnership provides another piece of evidence that Apple plans to debut OLED displays with its top-end iPhone 8, backing up multiple rumors to that effect.
Why OLED iPhone screens?
The big advantage offered by OLED is that the tech allows for thinner, more energy-efficient displays that can produce deeper colors because the pixels glow on their own, rather than needing a backlit panel as with LCD displays.
Idemitsu Kosan reportedly started working on OLED technology back in 1985, the year after Apple debuted the first Macintosh.
“We have had all the key patents for 10 years,” said Takamitsu Nagase, general manager in charge of business strategy at Idemitsu’s electronic-materials department. “But it’s only in the past three or four years that it has become a real business.”
Cupertino bringing the company aboard is certainly a bit of positive news for Japanese display makers. We’ve reported that Japan Display — previously a favored display maker of Apple’s — has been the “big loser” in Apple’s bid to adopt OLED for the new iPhone.
Japan Display previously vied to become Apple’s primary iPhone display maker, and even went as far as building a $1.4 billion plant dedicated to servicing Cupertino. However, while the company currently supplies LCD displays to Apple — which accounts for half of Japan Display’s revenue each year — it has been described as being “way behind” on OLED tech.
Apple is set to release three new iPhones in September — an iPhone 8, iPhone 7s and 7s Plus. Of these, only the iPhone 8 is likely to include an OLED display, with the other two handsets retaining LCD screens. Even so, a previous report suggested Apple will acquire 14 percent of all OLED panels produced this year for its new handset.
