The iPhone X was Apple’s first smartphone with an OLED display and the company followed that up with new models in 2018. It still offers an LCD model but 2019 might be the last year for this display technology in Apple’s lineup. A new report claims that Apple is going to go OLED only for iPhones starting next year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple may drop LCD displays for the iPhone lineup from 2020. This move won’t catch the market by surprise because OLED display panel prices should have dropped enough by then to make this switch viable.
However, the question remains, whether Apple will continue to offer a more affordable variant of its flagship smartphone going forward. This is a strategy that Samsung is adopting with the Galaxy S10 this year but even its entry-level device will have an OLED display. Apple may decide to make this decision due to reports that the iPhone XR hasn’t done as well as it might have hoped.
Apple is still expected to release a successor to the iPhone XR this year and it’s going to have an LCD display. It may decide to ditch the technology altogether starting next year. What that means for the iPhone XR remains a mystery for now. Apple is also expected to launch its first 5G iPhone in 2020.