As evidence mounts that Apple will launch an iPhone sporting an OLED display within the next few years, a Korean analyst has predicted that 2018 will be when Apple debuts a curved screen OLED iPhone.
In January, Samsung was reportedly set to spend up to $7.47 billion on equipment for manufacturing OLED panels for future iPhones. The Korea Herald reports Lee Choong-hoon, UBI Research’s president and chief analyst, remarking that, while “Samsung is the only company that meets Apple’s strict product criteria”, other display makers – including LG – could take shares of the orders.
He further predicted that an OLED iPhone sporting a curved screen would be first unveiled in 2018, with OLED models accounting for 30% or 100 million units of that year’s total iPhone shipments. This figure, he added, could rise to 80% by 2020 – and, by the following year, outpace Samsung’s OLED adoption.
The analyst’s words suggest that he differs in opinion from the very reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo – who, in March, predicted that the first OLED iPhone would actually arrive with a significant redesign, including a curved glass enclosure, for Apple’s handset in 2017.
