Apple: OLED company spotlight

According to reports from Japan, Apple decided to adopt a 6.1" AMOLED display for its upcoming iPhone SE 4 smartphone, which will mean that all of the company's smartphone products will be based on OLED displays.

We actually reported this in March 2024, and back then it was suggested that Apple's target price was $25 for the OLED display - which was too low for Samsung Display that decided not to continue with its discussions with Apple. Back then it was estimate that BOE will supply the majority of the displays, and some orders will go to Tianma. According to the new report, the second supplier is actually LG Display.

UBI Research estimates that 12 million OLED tablet panels will ship in 2024, and increase of over 500% from 2023 (1.84 million units), following Apple's adoption of OLEDs in its iPad Pro devices for the first time.

UBI sees the tablet OLED display market continuing to grow, and is expected to reach 30 million units in 2028. The current market leaders are Samsung Display and LG Display, but other display makers are also targeting this market, with BOE aiming to ship 1.5 million OLED tablet panels in 2024, and Visionox around 800,000 units.

According to reports, Meta has decided to cancel one of its VR projects that was planned for 2027. This device was to be a high-end product, similar to Apple's Vision Pro - with a similar high price tag. Following the poor market reaction for Apple's Vision Pro, Meta decided to scrap the project.

The original Oculus Rift

Meta was planning to use OLED microdisplays in its upcoming high-end headset, as these are the best performing displays for such products. It is reported that one of the reasons that Meta is not proceeding with its project is the high price of the OLEDs. These are expensive displays indeed - according to some estimates, Apple is paying $350 for each display, which means around $700 for each headset. On the other hand, it is estimated that OLED microdisplay prices are set to drop sharply in the near future as new capacity comes online, and new players (including Samsung and LGD) start producing displays. 

According to DSCC, 4.1 million OLED tablet panels shipped in the second quarter of 2024, a new record high, as Apple launched its 2024 OLED iPad Pro tablets. Apple quickly became the largest buyer of OLED tab let panels - with a 72% market share in Q2 2024 (followed by Huawei at 13% and Samsung at 9%).

DSCC expects the OLED tablet panel market to fall 5% in the next quarter to 3.9 million panels (but up 169% over Q3 2023), as Apple reduces its orders dramatically after the launch, but this will be almost offset by new panels shipments to Microsoft and Honor. Growth will continue in Q4, and total panel shipments are expected to each over 14 million units in 2024, over 200% growth from 2023.

Korea's The Elec reports that Apple is planning to release an OLED iPad Air device in 2016. The leading display producer will be Samsung Display.

According to the report, the iPad Air AMOLED will be a single-stack LTPS AMOLED device, unlike the tandem OLEDs used in the 2024 iPad Pro devices. The report also suggests that the same AMOLED displays may also be used in the 2026 iPad Mini devices - as Apple aims to adopt OLEDs in all of its iPad devices in the future. But Apple hasn't fully decided on its iPad Mini OLED adoption roadmap yet.

According to reports, Apple has cut its total 2024 OLED iPad Pro panel orders from Samsung and LG to around 7-8 million units, down from its planned 9-10 million units, as the demand for Apple's new iPads is not as high as expected.

Apple has also increased LG Display's order share, at the expense of Samsung Display. The company asked LGD to produce about a million more 11" panels compared to its previous orders. 

Earlier this year we reported that Apple has decided to sign up BOE as its AMOLED supplier for the upcoming budget iPhone SE4 (with a 6.1" AMOLED display). According to reports back then, Apple's low price target ($25) was not profitable for Samsung that decided to not supply any AMOLEDs for this iPhone model.

According to new reports from Korea, Apple now signed up LG Display to supply some of its iPhone SE4 panels - mostly backup (BOE had its issues with Apple before) and support, as BOE will remain the main panels supplier.

LG Display reported its financial results for Q2 2024 - with revenues reaching $4.85 billion (an increase of 42% compared to last year) and a net loss of $67 million (down from around $637 million in 2023).

LG Display benefited greatly from Apple's introduction of its 2024 iPad pro tablets, for which LGD is the main AMOLED supplier. The company is also expecting to sell a record number of iPhone AMOLED panels later this year. LGD says that the proportion of OLED products rose 10% of its total sales, reaching 52% - which means that OLED is now the company's main product line in terms of revenues.

According to a report from Korea, Apple has sent an RFI for both Samsung Display and LG Display, seeking more information about the two companies capabilities regarding the production of OLED microdisplays. It is speculated that Apple is seeking to change its OLED supplier in a future, lower-cost VR headset.

Apple specifically mentions a white OLED with color filters architectures (i.e. not a direct-patterned device), a panel size of 2 to 2.1 inch and a display density of around 1,700 PPI (which is rather low, Sony's 4K microdisplays used in the Apple Vision Pro for example offer a density of almost 3,400 PPI).