Most people are pretty darn excited about the possibility of Apple adding an OLED display to the iPhone in the near future, but according to one analyst, the feature is likely to be rolled out slowly — arriving first of all as an “added bonus” for only select higher-end iPhones.
As per Gabelli & Co.’s Hendi Susanto, Apple’s 2017 iPhone refresh — being dubbed the “iPhone 8” in some circles, due to the scale of the refresh that is proposed — could gain OLED displays if Apple is willing to opt for “partial adoption” and incorporate the technology into a “specialized edition” of the 2017 iPhone.
Susanto suggests that Apple will be unable to get hold of sufficient OLED displays to cover both every iPhone it produces, thereby forcing the company to initially adopt the technology as a “limited edition” high end premium if it wants to get the new displays out for next year’s tenth birthday edition iPhone.
The report isn’t clear on whether Apple will do this, or else hold out until later on to introduce the OLED displays across all iPhone models at once, but it wouldn’t necessarily be out of character for Apple to introduce adopt premium features for just one model of iPhone.
For instance, in 2013 the iPhone 6 Plus included an Optical Stabilization Feature that the smaller iPhone 6 model did not. Meanwhile this year, the iPhone 7 Plus is expected to include a dual-camera setup that the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 will not.
Would you like to see Apple ship an OLED iPhone model sooner, but only as a special feature for one particular iPhone model?
Or do you think this could further fragment the iPhone line in a way that would be bad for people who want a smaller iPhone model, but are still hoping for the superior display? Leave your comments below.
Source: Barrons
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
8 responses to “Only ‘special edition’ iPhones may get OLED displays at first”
” in 2013 the iPhone 6 Plus” aha
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Terrible……
That would not be a good move. I’m holding off on the iPhone “7”, if the iPhone 8 keeps certain features exclusive to the larger form factor, I’m afraid I’m going elsewhere – I refuse to pay a premium price for out-of-date tech. No wonder here in South Africa iOS smartphones make up 7%, and Android is touching 70%. But even worse that that, Windows and Blackberry combined have more than DOUBLE iOS market share!
Android is basically the new Symbian. It has majority market share because it’s cheapest. It has nothing at all to do with the specs or features of Android (stats over the years have proven the main draw for most is the price tag and specs are the least important feature). Matter of fact breaking down the numbers overall makes Android look bad. While 85% of global smartphone sales are Android, over 90% of smartphone profits are iOS. This means only 1 out of 10 smartphone users are actually willing to pay iPhone prices for Android, and that 9 out of 10 smartphones sold are below the cost of the iPhone SE. Android will die before iOS will just like Symbian died before BlackBerry did. Profits are what matter most to companies, and unfortunately Android is far behind the profit margins. Matter of fact if Samsung and Google had to rely on Android profits to make a living, both would be out of business. Google actually makes more money from iOS than from Android which is very ironic seeing Android is Google’s OS.
I have to totally agree with you wrt profits. In fact, that’s what I often tell people. But when a company starts falling behind on features you can buy elsewhere, at the same price or cheaper, it gets dangerous. And in South Africa a lot of Apple features don’t work, whereas Google’s does – they’re much better with regionalising. I’m happy to pay a premium for a quality experience, which includes software and hardware quality and features. But right now, outside the USA/Canada, Europe and Australia, Apple is losing ground fast.
iPhone 6 Plus came out in 2014 not 2013. 2013 iPhone 5s, 2014 iPhone 6/6+, 2015 iPhone 6s/6s+. How could someone writing an article on an Apple site make such a mistake? Are they hiring Android users to write for Cult of Mac all the sudden?
I was a long time user of Android and bought my first iPhone with the 6 Plus. Since that time, I will say the phone has been much more reliable than my Android phone, stability wise, but at the same time, Apple is really falling behind. I’ve had the pleasure of using a friend’s new Galaxy and was astonished at how much better the display was than my iPhone, and that includes my wife’s iPhone 6s. I currently own my phone and have no intention of upgrading for a couple of reasons. 1) if Apple would release a phone worth upgrading to (3D touch? don’t care…mine takes great pictures and the base memory of a new phone is terrible…32 GB rumored on the 7, but again…not enough) 2) My phone actually dies. If that were to happen, I’d have to consider switching to something different that will actually be “current” as compared to a “new” iPhone pushing premium prices on old tech.