Word on the street in Korea has it that LG and Samsung are just days away from signing an agreement with Apple to supply OLED displays for the ninth generation iPhone. This won't be the first time the three companies have worked together, though. As it stands, both LG and Samsung are the primary manufacturers of the 1.3- and 1.5-inch panels used on the Apple Watch.
In an effort to meet Apple's demand of OLEDs, it's believed that LG and Samsung will spend a combined $12.8 billion to revamp their production lines. LG will repurpose its existing manufacturing plants to produce its share of panels, which should save it some money in the long run. It will also introduce a sixth-generation production technique that has yet to be tested in order to process a greater yield.
Seeing as LG has to make several alterations to its plants to manufacture the goods, Samsung will be awarded 30% more orders than LG as it has the facilities to start mass-producing the displays immediately. Discussions are currently underway with Apple to construct approximately 90,000 sheets per month for 2-to-3 years.
The ever-reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the screens themselves will be ready to hit the market in early 2019, which means that they will make their debut appearance on the iPhone 9 and not the iPhone 8 as previously believed. Although, many other analysts disagree with Kuo and suggest that the panels will roll off the line in 2018 just in time for the iPhone 8's release.
