Apple supplier LG Display to spend $8.5B on OLED technology

Posted:
in General Discussion edited August 2015
Korea's LG Display on Monday announced plans to spend 10 trillion won, or about $8.5 billion U.S., during the next three years on developing OLED technology, some of which could find its way into Apple hardware.




LG is already the world's largest maker of LCD displays, but is facing tough competition from Chinese firms, as well as slowing demand for consumer electronics, Bloomberg noted. In contrast, DisplaySearch data quoted by LG suggests that the global OLED market should grow from $8.7 billion in 2014 to $28.3 billion in 2022.

The company didn't specify which companies or products it would build OLEDs for, but Bloomberg remarked that the panels could end up in everything from wearables to cars and TVs.

LG is one of Apple's main LCD suppliers, manufacturing panels for products like the iPad. The only current Apple product that uses OLED, however, is the Watch, something that may be attributable to the higher cost of the technology. OLED enables reduced power consumption as well as flexible surfaces.

The LG spending could be based partly on a prediction that Apple will become more invested in OLED. Watch sales should grow over time, it's possible the company could bring OLED to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac as mass production becomes cheaper.

It's also possible, however, that Apple could bypass OLED entirely. The company acquired low-power display maker LuxVue last year, and display experts say the company's micro-LED technology is so impressive, it could replace OLED.

In June a rumor emerged that Apple is hoping to adopt flexible OLED for future iPhones, but that if so, it could happen as late as 2018. That would be consistent with LG's timeline.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    sog35 wrote: »
    This is what Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, ect should do.   They should focus on being Apple suppliers and stop wasting money trying to compete with iPhone.

    Let Xiaomi, Lennovo, Huawai and other cheap POS companies fight for pennies selling Android junk.


    Agreed!
  • Reply 2 of 13
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Apple supplier cuts output/$$ forecast = Apple is doomed because only Apple products would see decline.
    Apple supplier increases output/$$ forecast = Apple is doomed because the gains are attributed to non Apple products.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    sog35 wrote: »
    This is what Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, ect should do.   They should focus on being Apple suppliers and stop wasting money trying to compete with iPhone.

    Let Xiaomi, Lennovo, Huawai and other cheap POS companies fight for pennies selling Android junk.
    I wouLd be concerned of One Plus if I'm an android device maker. One Plus One was a hit, and now One Plus 2 has long waiting list to fill. If I'm using Android, this would be the phone to buy sine their Cyanogen Android based OS is not that bad.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    polymniapolymnia Posts: 1,080member
    fallenjt wrote: »
    I wouLd be concerned of One Plus if I'm an android device maker. One Plus One was a hit, and now One Plus 2 has long waiting list to fill. If I'm using Android, this would be the phone to buy sine their Cyanogen Android based OS is not that bad.

    What are you talking about? I've never heard of anything you mention.

    I do like LG screens, though.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Korea's LG Display on Monday announced plans to spend 10 trillion won, or about $8.5 billion U.S., during the next three years on developing OLED technology, some of which could find its way into Apple hardware...

     

     

    ...and some of which will find it's way into Samsung's hardware.

     

    The technology that is, not the actual screens.

  • Reply 6 of 13
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    sog35 wrote: »
    This is what Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, ect should do.   They should focus on being Apple suppliers and stop wasting money trying to compete with iPhone.

    Let Xiaomi, Lennovo, Huawai and other cheap POS companies fight for pennies selling Android junk.

    And when Apple switches to someone else, then what?
  • Reply 7 of 13
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member

    Maybe I'll be able to upgrade from my 60 inch Plasma in a few years without going down to hyper crappy LCD/LED'S... Hope so.

    Hoping my TV will survive that long!

  • Reply 8 of 13
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    foggyhill wrote: »
    Maybe I'll be able to upgrade from my 60 inch Plasma in a few years without going down to hyper crappy LCD/LED'S... Hope so.
    Hoping my TV will survive that long!

    Plasmas last a long time now. LEDs are the worst. If you're not looking straight on they get hazy
  • Reply 9 of 13
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member

    OLED is much cheaper to produce. Especially with LG's WOLED. Hopefully this means LG has improved the white colour power issues, production yield on smaller size screen. And may be for the first time ever OLED will win IPS on every categories.

  • Reply 10 of 13
    swiftswift Posts: 436member

    I had never seen a TV display that was OLED until a couple of weeks ago. An LG 50" display in 1080p was available for $2000. It was the best Hi-Def picture I have ever seen in my life. LCD and the best LED looks like utter crap in comparison. I like it better than 4K LEDs and/or plasmas. I never cared about 3D, a gimmick, I was attracted to 4K, but never enough to pull the trigger; this is the real deal. Beautiful. 

     

    I'm just waiting for it to come down in price. First one I heard about was $15,000. But now, $2,000 is almost in reach. The prices, with this kind of investment, will come down fast, and screens will never be the same. The last thing you will hear from me as I vanish in the foam will be, "The blacks! The blacks!" The pure black of the panel makes everything else stand out. LG is making the right choice. The also make a 4K OLED, but it's $6 grand. I'll wait for the content and the final definition of the color space. Turning on and off each pixel one at a time makes all the difference in the world. 

  • Reply 11 of 13
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Swift View Post

     

    I had never seen a TV display that was OLED until a couple of weeks ago. An LG 50" display in 1080p was available for $2000. It was the best Hi-Def picture I have ever seen in my life. LCD and the best LED looks like utter crap in comparison. I like it better than 4K LEDs and/or plasmas. I never cared about 3D, a gimmick, I was attracted to 4K, but never enough to pull the trigger; this is the real deal. Beautiful. 

     

    I'm just waiting for it to come down in price. First one I heard about was $15,000. But now, $2,000 is almost in reach. The prices, with this kind of investment, will come down fast, and screens will never be the same. The last thing you will hear from me as I vanish in the foam will be, "The blacks! The blacks!" The pure black of the panel makes everything else stand out. LG is making the right choice. The also make a 4K OLED, but it's $6 grand. I'll wait for the content and the final definition of the color space. Turning on and off each pixel one at a time makes all the difference in the world. 


     

    The problem with OLED has been longevity, which in a 10K TV is ahem, something not to sneeze at. I'm well off, but not "that" well off ;-). If there was an affordable (say, sub 3 to 4K$) 70 inch+ OLED TV which could last at least 5 years with the same image quality I think I'd go for it. It is coming, but not this year. Probably won't be until late 2017 at the earliest (I'm an optimist).

  • Reply 12 of 13
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by foggyhill View Post

     

     

    The problem with OLED has been longevity, which in a 10K TV is ahem, something not to sneeze at. I'm well off, but not "that" well off ;-). If there was an affordable (say, sub 3 to 4K$) 70 inch+ OLED TV which could last at least 5 years with the same image quality I think I'd go for it. It is coming, but not this year. Probably won't be until late 2017 at the earliest (I'm an optimist).




    I "think" LG's WOLED solves this issues. You will have decreasing brightness over the (long) years, but not colour inaccuracy or blurring effect within the lifespan of the screen. So consider OLED's main problem will be price. You will need economy of scale to drive down the production cost. And I think LG already has landed largest OLED order coming in 2016.

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