LG could start building OLED iPhone displays sooner than you think

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iPhone 7
Samsung will have to learn how to share.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

LG Display could enter Apple’s OLED supply chain as early as the middle of next year, a new report coming out of Korea claims.

By taking on LG as a partner, Apple could break its reliance on longtime frenemy Samsung, which will deliver the OLED displays for the new iPhone 8 handset.

Enter LG, pursued by Samsung

While it’s no secret that LG could join Apple’s supply chain in this capacity, previous reports have indicated that this would be by 2019, suggesting that Apple will have two generations of OLED iPhones to deliver with Samsung as its only partner.

Instead, Business Korea states that, “Apple will have to choose whether or not to release the iPhone with LG OLED screens in the second half of next year or wait until the year after next.” This suggests that LG’s OLED production line will be ready in the middle of 2018, and not 2019 after all.

Previously, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that LG will to supply 10-20 percent of the iPhone’s OLED supply by 2019, and 20-30 percent by 2020.

LG Display and Apple have reportedly reached the final stage of negotiations, but a few issues remain to be ironed out — including the prickly issue of advance payment.

Particularly over the last few years, Apple has actively tried to diversify its manufacturing supply chain so that more than one company is responsible for delivering components. Sometimes, this is a necessity due to the massive number of components Apple needs to source for its products. In other cases, it’s to mitigate against one supplier’s failure damaging Apple’s plans, while giving Cupertino more of a bargaining chip in negotiations.

As far as OLED screens go, it is likely that next year’s iPhone refresh will feature multiple OLED handsets, rather than this year’s combination of OLED display for the iPhone 8 and LCD displays for the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus.

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