Rumor: LG and Samsung will supply OLED screens for iPhones from 2018

Samsung and LG would supply OLED screens to Apple from 2018 for use in iPhones. Apple and the South Korean manufacturers are said to be close to an agreement. LG is already a supplier of OLED screens for use in the Apple Watch.

The Watch is the first Apple product with an OLED screen, because iPhones have always used LCDs until now. ETNews reports on the basis of anonymous sources that the agreement with LG is almost complete, but that the talks with Samsung are not going as smoothly, because Samsung would like more margin and would like to give less insight into how it produces OLED screens. Under the agreements, Apple would pay for the capacity expansion of the factories to enable deliveries of OLED screens.

Both South Korean manufacturers would supply the panels from 2018. Samsung would make a little more of the OLED screens than LG. All three manufacturers have not yet responded to the rumor. Rumors about an OLED screen in future iPhones have been going on for some time.

Where LCDs have a backlight, which illuminates pixels from behind, the pixels of an OLED screen give light themselves. When displaying black, they are off, so that OLED screens offer a high contrast. In addition, LG and Samsung have made OLED screens more efficient in recent years. LG uses its own OLED screen in its G Flex series of smartphones, while Samsung has been using the OLED screens in the Galaxy S series for years.