Bezel-less displays may be the trend today, but the future of smartphones may very well be foldable. Not long after Samsung was reported to release a foldable smartphone, talks of Apple developing a foldable iPhone has surfaced.
A report from The Bell, picked up and translated by The Investor, claims that the Cupertino-based company is working with LG Display to create an iPhone with foldable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel. Apparently, Apple's choice of supplier had something to do with its rivalry with the Galaxy phone maker and concerns over leaking.
LG Innotek, which manufactures electronic components, has already formed a new team for the development of a rigid, flexible printed circuit board that would drive the foldable device. Citing an unnamed industry source, the report further says that the production of the new foldable OLED display could start as early as 2020. If Apple chooses not to delay the launch of the iPhone model at a later date, it might debut in 2021.
Samsung currently supplies the OLED panels for the iPhone X and will likely provide all the displays for next year's iPhones, as it now holds a near-monopoly over OLED production. A study published earlier this year stated that Samsung would keep around 89 percent of the OLED panel market in 2017, and that will only drop down to 72 percent by 2020.
LG, on the other hand, is not as big as Samsung when it comes to supplying OLED panels. However, the company has shown off bendable displays in other venues. Its G Flex and G Flex 2 smartphones, for example, boasts curved displays. It has also supplied liquid crystal displays for iPhones so far, but it reportedly aims to be the secondary supplier for OLED iPhones next year.
News of LG and Apple's partnership for an iPhone's foldable OLED display comes almost simultaneously with the discovery of an Apple patent application that describes the same concept. Per Apple Insider, the patent calls for a device with a bendable portion. To make it possible, the filing notes that a flexible display would be needed.
