Apple to fully switch to OLED iPhones in 2020, report claims

LCD iPhones might be a thing of the past by year 2020, The Wall Street Journal claims. 

The outlet’s report focuses on Japan Display — a major supplier of LCD screens for Apple — which might land in financial trouble due to the “disappointing performance” of Apple’s iPhone XR, which is the only iPhone released in 2018 that has an LCD screen. 

According to the report, Japan Display might seek a bailout from investors in China and Taiwan, to the tune of $550 million or more. The biggest problem that the company has is relying too much on Apple, which was responsible for more than half of Japan Display’s yearly revenue as of March 2018. 

The interesting part for Apple fans are the comments from people with knowledge of Japan Display’s production plans, which claim that Apple’s 2020 iPhone lineup won’t have a new phone with an LCD screen. OLED screens allow for “more flexible” handset design, the people said, which (if you’re willing to speculate hard enough) might mean Apple is planning to do something innovative with the iPhone. 

The WSJ recently had a similar report that claimed the iPhone XR will live to see another year, but will be dropped by 2020. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed media speculation about the iPhone XR, claiming in a recent interview that the iPhone XR has been “the most popular iPhone every day” since it began shipping. That’s getting harder to check, though, as Apple recently stopped disclosing unit sales numbers in its financial reports. 

Apple is expected to launch three new phones in 2019, likely iterative upgrades to its current lineup, which consists of the OLED-based iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, as well as the LCD-based iPhone XR.