Samsung ramping up OLED production to meet Apple demand
An increasing number of smartphone manufacturers have been moving forward with incorporating OLED displays instead of the traditional LCD. Apple is expected to be the catalyst for the OLED industry with its huge investment in the technology for the next generation of iPhones and iPads. According to ET News, the Cupertino company recently placed an order for 70 million OLED panels from Samsung solely for the upcoming iPhone 8.
As a direct result of the deal, Samsung will purportedly have seven of its manufacturing plants running at full capacity in order to fulfill the sudden spike in demand. The move is expected to increase OLED production by 600 percent to 105000 panels per month from the current 15000 panels. Assuming a yield of 60 percent, the source estimates that Samsung should be able to produce about 75 million usable 6-inch OLED panels or 79 million smaller OLED panels per year.
The news comes just weeks after it was revealed that Apple will be investing billions of Dollars in LG to hasten its OLED production lines. Unsurprisingly, Apple would prefer to have multiple OLED suppliers with LG expected to begin mass producing 15000 OLED panels per month starting in 2018 to supplement those from Samsung.
Once orders from Apple are met, it's likely that Samsung and/or LG will continue OLED production for other manufacturers. Smartphones with OLED displays could become commonplace similar to the fingerprint sensor and dual rear camera trends.
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