Apple has selected South Korea’s LG Display as a second supplier for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for iPhones, Reuters reported.
Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics, was the sole supplier of OLED displays for Apple.
Apple last week introduced its largest-ever iPhone and a watch that detects heart problems on Wednesday in an attempt to get customers to upgrade to more expensive devices in the face of stagnant global demand for smartphones.
Apple iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max come with 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED Super Retina display. The iPhone XR has a LCD Liquid Retina display.
The supply deal with the US-based smartphone maker could help LG Display gain a further foothold in the OLED display market. The South Korean company has high hopes for OLED business.
LG’s mainstay, older-technology liquid crystal display business is struggling with Chinese rivals and panel price declines.
OLED market
Research firm TrendForce recently said Samsung has lowered the utilization rate of OLED production lines due to weak demand for Apple iPhone X that was launched last year.
The penetration rate of OLED panel in smartphones will reach 46 percent by 2021. Current supply of OLED panel from Samsung was occupied by iPhones and high-end Samsung smartphones
The cost of 5.5-inch hard OLED panel is around $18. The cost for Mini LED backlight panel of the same size and the same resolution will be $35-40. It will be difficult for Mini LED to compete with OLED panels in high-end smartphone market if Mini LED cannot reduce the costs.
The cost of using Mini LED in smartphone backlighting depends on the number of LED chips used and the transfer efficiency of wafer. Many LED manufacturers try to lower the costs through different technical solutions, such as reducing the number of LED chips by optical adjustment, or increasing the transfer efficiency of die bond machines to reduce the cost of bonding.
