Apple Might Not Have Enough OLEDs For 2017’s iPhone

If you were hoping to see OLED iPhones in 2017, you might be disappointed. The rumors are saying that OLED iPhones will be released in 2017, but apparently there could be supply constraints. A report from Bloomberg revealed that Apple’s OLED suppliers might not be able to meet the demand, and that these constraints are expected to last until 2018.

If you might recall, a few days ago we reported that Apple was rumored to launch 3 versions of the iPhone. We would have the standard 4.7-inch model, a 5.5-inch Plus model, and another Plus model that would have a 5.5-inch OLED display. The report from Bloomberg seems to corroborate those claims, suggesting that Apple will either be forced to launch one iPhone with an OLED display, or push back the adoption of the technology to 2018 where all their iPhone models will be outfitted with the display.

Both have their downsides, with the former creating fragmentation amongst iPhone users, while the latter means that we’ll have one more year of a “boring” iPhone, which obviously won’t be doing the declining iPhone sales any favors, nor will it sit well with Apple’s investors. However this is largely out of Apple’s hands as OLED screens are said to be harder to manufacture, thus for suppliers to be able to meet the demand not just in terms of numbers but quality will be hard.

Either way we guess we’ll have to wait until 2017 to find out how Apple plans on dealing with this, so until then take it with a grain of salt, and maybe don’t get your hopes up too high just yet.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Rumors
Tags: iPhone