Over the past few months, the 2020 iPhone rumors have all seemed to land on Apple once again releasing three new models next year, but this time with screen sizes of 5.4 inches, 6.1 inches, and 6.7 inches, respectively. But this week, a report from ETNews cites industry sources which claim that Samsung will be the sole provider of OLED displays for the 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch models, and that those displays will be thinner than ever.
As ETNews explains, the OLED displays in the past have had to utilize a separate film on top of the display panel for touch functionality, but the on-cell touch flexible OLED panels, which use Samsung’s Y-OCTA technology, have touch sensors built into the panel, which makes displays thinner and lowers production costs.
“Although Apple had been sticking with film touch method since its first iPhone, Samsung Display has succeeded in drawing a change from Apple by actively promoting Y-OCTA technology to Apple.” said an industry source. “It is heard that Samsung Display also suggested shocking terms in order to obtain an order from Apple.”
As for the 6.1-inch model (the iPhone 11’s successor), the sources believe that Apple will once again order traditional OLED panels from both Samsung Display and LG Display. LG is apparently capable of producing the on-cell OLED panels as well, but the technology is said to fall short of Samsung’s Y-OCTA displays.
This is just one of the major changes rumored to be in store for the new iPhone lineup in 2020. Beyond the upgraded OLED displays, the iPhone 12 line is also expected to feature up to 6GB of RAM, time-of-flight 3D-sensing cameras, and even support for 5G. 2020 should be a very interesting year for Apple’s phone business.
