Foxconn reportedly looks to lock down next-gen iPhone display contracts with forays into microLED

According to DigiTimes, Foxconn is in a position to anticipate Apple's smartphone-display needs of the future. The mobile device supplier has reportedly directed a number of its subsidiaries (Marketech International, Epileds Technologies, and Advanced Optoelectronic Technology) to research and develop microLED technology. Currently, each of these companies is linked to different aspects of these next-gen panels and their production.

Foxconn's reasoning may be that its Cupertino-based customer may want to proceed to this next step in display technology for its iPhones as soon as possible. Currently, microLEDs are the stuff of extremely expensive, emerging TV technology. These devices, which have been showcased by companies such as Samsung in the recent past, are touted as having all the advantages of OLED with none of its drawbacks.

On that note, Foxconn may have a rival in terms of potential microLED iPhone contracts: namely LG, whose own advances into microLED displays have been followed by Apple with interest. In the meantime, other recent iPhone-related rumors suggest that the '2nd-gen XR' will step up to a 2X zoom in one of its main cameras this year.

As this is the current photographers' selling-point of the XS and XS Max, this may also indicate that their own successors will have even better telephoto modules on their release.