Could Apple Bring OLED to the Masses?

I have recently been testing the new Lenovo Yoga with its brilliant OLED screen. If you have not seen a laptop with an OLED display, try and do so as it is a game changer when it comes to delivering stunning images and overall visuals on a laptop. This experience has caused me to lust after having this type of screen on all of my laptops, actually all my screens, and more importantly, my smartphone.

Of course, the problem with OLEDs is that, besides its higher price, the yield rates are still low. Quantity has been a real challenge for the makers of OLED screens. Lenovo’s OLED-based Yoga costs over $3000 while most high-end laptops without this screen are well under $1800.

But, in an important new development last week, Sharp announced it will invest around $500 million in a new OLED display factory. This is important as Sharp is now owned by Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones. Since this news was announced, I spoke to a contact in Taiwan who told me Apple is considering also investing a significant amount into this factory. It would pretty much guarantee they would always have a strong supply of OLED screens for iPhones and makes it harder for competitors to get these screens — at least from Sharp/Foxconn. LG is also maintaining their commitment to OLED and remains committed to bringing costs down and also increasing yields.

So how could this translate into something Apple could use in the short and long term? Since Sharp is already doing OLED screens in limited quantity, Apple could potentially use them in a limited run as early as next fall in what might be an anniversary edition of the iPhone. As you know, the iPhone was introduced in 2007 and the fall of 2017 would mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Most analysts expect Apple to create an iPhone that has significant design changes and one thing could be an OLED screen in perhaps a high-end anniversary model.

But, if Sharp creates a larger factory that Apple also invests in, I would suspect this would translate into all iPhones having OLED screens by 2018.

While other smartphones have a type of OLED, like Samsung’s AMOLED, critics in the display world suggest the color customization is not natural and is modified to look more pleasing or enhanced. With Apple’s current focus with iPad and iPhone 7/Plus to provide a more natural wide color gamut it would be very interesting to see how they would adapt this strategy to OLED, perhaps universally across their products. It is possible we may even get an indication of their direction if the rumors are true about OLED Macs coming the near future.

If Apple did jump in and invest directly into an OLED display factory would give them the kind of volume they would need to make the next generation of iPhones distinctive as a mass market product and help make it a cornerstone display design for the next ten years of iPhones, and all Apple products.

An interesting twist on this is the potential impact this will have on OLED TVs. Many people believe OLED screens would be important for use in next-generation televisions. But with Sharp and others focusing on meeting the demand for OLEDs in smartphones, it may be some time before they or other display makers can get OLED screens for TVs to market in any serious quantities anytime soon.

Net net is we need a critical mass of high-resolution displays in order to keep moving the content ecosystem forward. This move to 4k and beyond is moving slower than HDTV for a range of reasons. The more high resolution, 4k and beyond, displays out there the faster we hope content starts to support it. An example of this is my frustration that I can’t watch 4k Netflix content on the OLED Lenovo Yoga. Netflix can enable this, but my guess is they don’t feel there is a critical mass of mobile-centric devices that support 4k. A critical mass of these types of technology will inevitably help move the content world forward as well we hope.

Published by

Tim Bajarin

Tim Bajarin is the President of Creative Strategies, Inc. He is recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts and futurists covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology. Mr. Bajarin has been with Creative Strategies since 1981 and has served as a consultant to most of the leading hardware and software vendors in the industry including IBM, Apple, Xerox, Compaq, Dell, AT&T, Microsoft, Polaroid, Lotus, Epson, Toshiba and numerous others.

4 thoughts on “Could Apple Bring OLED to the Masses?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *