Samsung Needs Apple Orders To Expand OLED displays

Samsung is sticking to its plans to win Apple as a partner for the production of further OLED displays. A new production line should help equip iPads with suitable panels in two years at the latest. However, the investment requires extensive cooperation.

After the rumors about possible iPads with OLED screens last year and vanished into thin air due to a failed partnership with Samsung, the South Koreans seem to offer another way of supplying Apple tablets with organic light-emitting diodes in the future. According to The Elec the Californian company should have a corresponding offer that could get production rolling with a large-volume order.

Profitable OLED production requires more

A major order from Apple could advance the development of a new vertical deposition machine for OLED panels of generation 8.5, which meets the quality and price expectations of the iPad manufacturer. In the past year, these two points, which are important for Apple, could not be fully met and the project is also said to have been unprofitable for Samsung without the further development of the production lines.

Should Apple decide to resume development and a correspondingly large order volume for iPad-compatible OLED panels, Samsung’s display division could set an expenditure plan in the second quarter of 2022 and start ordering the required machines from the third quarter. Since this process is likely to drag on until 2023, the first iPads with OLED displays from Samsung will not roll off the assembly line until 2024 at the earliest, according to the experts.

IPads are currently being delivered with classic LC displays including LED or mini-LED lighting. The same applies to the MacBook portfolio. Only the Retina displays of the iPhones and Apple Watch currently use OLED technology.