Apple: OLED company spotlight - Page 6

During DisplayWeek 2023, BOE demonstrated a new OLED microdisplay. The panel is 1.3" in size, and it offers a 3552x3840 resolution (4031 PPI), a refresh rate of 90Hz, and a color gamut of 90% DCI-P3.

This is BOE's largest and highest-resolution OLED microdisplay to date. BOE's current OLED microdisplays, already in production, include a 0.39", 0.49" and 0.71" FHD panels (all of which are available on the OLED marketplace, by the way).

Samsung Display and LG Display are both gearing up to build 8-Gen AMOLED production lines, aiming to supply Apple (and others) with OLEDs for IT devices - laptops and tablets, mostly. Last month Samsung announced that it will convert an existing LCD line in Asan to OLED production, with an estimated cost of $3.1 billion. 

According to a new report from Korea, the slowdown in Apple's laptop sales is a cause of worry for the OLED producers, who have delayed the plans to build the new fabs, and delayed equipment orders. The main problem for the OLED makers is that the slowdown in Apple's sales may drive Apple to want to low the price of the laptop displays, which would put a stress on the profitability of new OLED fabs.

Omdia released its latest IT OLED display forecasts, with some interesting projections. 

The company sees very nice growth ahead for OLED displays in the IT market, with shipments rising from around 9.7 million units in 2022 to over 70 million units in 2028. Most of the growth will come from adoption in laptops, but tablet adoption will also increase sharply.

Apple's interest in OLED displays for future iPad tablet device is not secret, and many analysts estimate that the first such device will be released in 2024.

One of Apple's requirement is for superior performance for its tablets compared to smartphone AMOLED displays - and so developers are relying on a tandem OLED structure. According to a new report from Korea, LG Display is developing another unique technology for Apple's iPads.

According to a new report by The Elec, Samsung displays for Apple's upcoming iPhone 15 phone series will use the same material stack (M12) that were used in the iPhone 14. The M12 was used in the upper-range iPhones 14 series, but this year in the iPhone 15 series, all four models will use the same material stack.

The Elec also says that Samsung's next foldable phones will also use the same M12 stack, used in the previous generation foldables (Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4).

According to reports from Korea, BOE is developing smartphone OLED displays  for Apple's iPhone 15 range, but it is facing technical hurdles.

Specifically, the iPhone 15 design has a camera (and FaceID sensors) punch-hole inside the OLED, and BOE's panel suffer from light leakage from the OLED into the camera hole area.

Market analysts from Omdia say that the XR market (which they define as a combination of AR, VR and MR) will grow from 24 million units in 2023 to almost 90 million units in 2028, a CAGR of 67%. In terms of revenues, the market (XR displays) will reach $1.15 billion in 2023.

As you can see from the graph above, VR applications still take up most of the market, and Omdia does not seem to think AR technology will reach mass markets soon, maybe only in 2028.

Korea-based ETNews reports that Apple has finally committed to adopt OLED displays in future tablets and laptops, and the company has signed a contact with a "local OLED developer" (which means either Samsung Display or LG Dispaly) to develop four different OLED displays.

According to the report, Apple decided to adopt a 10.86" and 12.9" AMOLED displays for future iPad devices, and 14" and 16" displays for future MacBooks. The first OLED iPad will be released in 2024, while the first OLED MacBook will come later in 2026.

Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that according to his sources, Apple is aiming to release an OLED MacBook in 2024.

Apple is already using OLED displays in its smartphones and wearables, and it used to have MacBook Pro powered by an OLED touchbar back in 2016. We know that Apple is aiming to move to OLED displays in its tablets and laptops, so this 'rumor' is not a surprise, but it remains to be seen if Apple's OLED laptops will indeed come as soon as next year.