Apple display maker Japan Display is set to receive yet another bailout, in the vicinity of $703 million, from the Japanese government-backed fund that is it’s larger shareholder, claims a new report.
The money will help Japan Display catch up its OLED manufacturing capabilities, which have been lagging behind its rival display makers.
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Japan Display revealed this week that its revenue for the third quarter of 2016 fell 25 percent, giving it a net loss of 4.9 billion yen for the July-September period. The company is hoping that strong sales of the iPhone 7, which it had a part in the manufacturing of, will help it rebound slightly in the last months of the year.
According to previous reports, Japan Display made the fatal mistake of doubling-down on its investment in LCD technology, while other companies bet big on OLED. As a result, the company has been referred to as the “big loser” in Apple’s bid to adopt OLED for next year’s iPhones.
Prior to this, Japan Display was making a bid to become Apple’s primary iPhone display maker, and even went as far as building a $1.4 billion dedicated to servicing Cupertino. However, it has been hit hard by its lack of OLED capabilities, and its failure to buy fellow iPhone display maker Sharp (which holds various OLED-related patents) — which ended when Japan Display was beaten out by Foxconn.
Last month, Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu stated that the 2017-era iPhone will come with an OLED display, confirming a long-standing rumor about the handset.
“The iPhone has been evolving and now it is switching from LTPS to OLED panels,” he noted. “We don’t know whether Apple’s OLED iPhones will be a hit, but if Apple doesn’t walk down this path and transform itself, there will be no innovation. It is a crisis but it is also an opportunity.”
The advantage of OLED displays is that they offer brighter display colors and sharper contrasts.
Source: WSJ
