Samsung Display is very close to an agreement with Apple to make OLED displays for future iPhones, and will spend up to $7.47 billion on OLED manufacturing equipment for this drive, says a new report.
The report comes from ET News, which operates from Samsung’s homeland of Korea. This year, Samsung Display will bump up its OLED production to between 30,000 and 45,000 displays per month, before a further 45,000 panels are added to the monthly tally in 2017.
All of this will be made possible largely thanks to OLED manufacturing and inspection equipment from the native display businesses AP Systems and HB Technology.
ET News claims that, “according to industries”, Samsung Display is so close to putting pen to paper on this major deal with Apple that the contract “has practically been decided”. The first orders from Apple are predicted to arrive by the end of 2016’s first quarter “at the earliest”.
Nonetheless, it remains unclear when the first OLED-equipped iPhones will be launched. Previous reports have pointed to some time in 2018, which suggests that the iPhone 8’s enhancements could include enhanced picture quality among other common benefits of OLED screens.