Apple has never made an iPhone before with an OLED display. The company is expected to change course this year with the iPhone 8. It’s believed to be the company’s first iPhone to feature an OLED panel. Samsung is likely going to be the major supplier since it has a virtual monopoly in the market. However, it appears that Apple is willing to give billions of dollars to a Samsung competitor in order to reduce its reliance on its rival.
According to reports out of South Korea, Apple is close to inking a deal with LG Display which will see the former invest up to $2.24 billion in LG’s display-making affiliate.
Apple is reportedly making this investment so that the LG subsidiary can scale up its small OLED panel production and exclusively supply smartphone-sized OLED panels for the iPhone. LG Display is said to be mulling the offer and may make a final decision on the matter in the coming weeks.
If Apple does switch over to OLED display technology for the iPhone, it will have to work with Samsung for a considerable amount of time given that the company has a virtual monopoly in the market.
Its offer to invest billions of dollars in LG Display can be viewed as a long-term move to diversify the supply chain so that eventually when all iPhone models go OLED, the company isn’t reliant on just one major supplier for OLED panels.
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