Earlier this month we reported that Samsung Display cannot supply enough AMOLED displays to Chinese phone maker Oppo, as SDC's production capacity is fully booked, and Oppo is seeing higher demand than anticipated. In fact some reports say that Oppo is selling more phones in China than Apple.
Now Oppo confirms this shortage of AMOLED display panels for the R9, and the company's president announced that Oppo will release an LCD variant called R9km. The LCD in the R9km will be supplied by JDI. The Oppo R9 (also known as F1 Plus) has a large display (5.5" FHD, 401 PPI) and is now available for around $500 in the US, unlocked.
This brings me back to 2010 - when Samsung announced that they can't meet OLED customer demand. Samsung soon afterwards committed $2.2 billion for a new AMOLED production line, that began production in 2012. Back in 2010 HTC had to switch to an LCD instead of an AMOLED in its Desire smartphone, exactly like what is happening now with Oppo.
