A report released late last year claimed that Apple is looking to swap the liquid crystal displays, or LCDs, on its iPhones with organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays by 2018. OLED displays lead to sharper and brighter images and hues and consume less power compared to LCDs.
Suppliers were said to have started racing to further fine-tune the technology and make investments in the expansion of production capacities after learning of Apple's plans. However, it now seems suppliers will need to move faster.
A new report by Nikkei reveals that Apple is planning to launch the first iPhone with an OLED display a year earlier than previously reported. The company is reportedly ahead of schedule in its plans to ship an OLED iPhone next year.
The company began to reach out to Samsung and LG, rival smartphone makers but also display providers, last December to gauge the possibility of increasing production levels to a level that would support an OLED iPhone by next year. Apple seems to have made progress in these discussions, as the company is said to be nearing a deal with the two companies that would be worth over $12 billion.
A September 2015 report said that Apple was looking at taking advantage of the capabilities of OLED technology by using an OLED display for a future iPhone model with a curved design. However, with the sudden acceleration of the company's plans, such a plan could be shelved.
Display manufacturers, to follow Apple's planned 2017 release date for an OLED iPhone, simply do not have enough time to run tests that would ensure compatibility between the technology and an unconventional design. This is because Apple is hoping to launch the OLED iPhone to the market as soon as possible.
The reason behind Apple's haste in releasing an OLED iPhone is to boost sales of the device, according to the report. Analysts have been claiming that the company has already saturated the iPhone market, and so Apple is now looking for other means to encourage current iPhone owners to upgrade to newer models more frequently and to attract owners of devices by rival companies to switch to the iPhone.
