Analysts Are Doubtful That Apple's 2019 iPhones Will All Have OLED Displays

Earlier this week, it was reported that Apple is planning to put OLED displays on all of its 2019 iPhone models. Now, a group of analysts have expressed doubt over the reports claiming that the 2019 timeframe may be inaccurate.

JP Morgan analyst Jay Kwon believes that 2019 is far too early for Apple to ditch LCD panels for OLED screens, according to Bloomberg. If Apple were to do this next year, it could make its devices more expensive and it would completely eliminate the possibility of having a more affordable model. An iPhone with LCD screen is seen as an opportunity for Apple to sell a cheaper model.

Another reason why analysts are doubtful that Apple’s 2019 iPhone lineup would all have OLED screens is the challenge of manufacturing that type of display. In 2017, Apple sold 216 million iPhones, 29 million of them were the OLED iPhone X. Samsung Display is Apple’s sole OLED supplier, but it also uses the same displays for Samsung’s Galaxy Android smartphones.

Samsung Display is currently the only manufacturer that can keep up with Apple’s demands and it seems unlikely that Samsung would allow itself to limit its own OLED supplies for Apple. Meanwhile, LG Display is still unable to produce OLED displays at the same level as Samsung. It was previously reported that Apple invested billions in LG Display to help speed up OLED production. LG was also rumored to be supplying the OLED panels for this year’s “iPhone X Plus,” as pointed out by MacRumors.

“It is unlikely that Apple will be releasing three OLED models next year,” Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting analyst Jeff Pu said. Goldman Sachs analysts Daiki Takayama and Jie Dai also said in their note that, “We think it is unlikely that all 2019 iPhone models will switch to OLED screens and we believe share prices have overreacted.”

Meanwhile, Fubon Securities analyst Arthur Liao said that he hasn’t heard anything about Apple switching to all OLED models next year from supply chain sources in Taiwan. IHS Market analyst Jerry Kang also said that Apple hasn’t been able to expand its iPhone X production due to market demand and the problem with pricing. However, Kang pointed out that Apple’s ultimate goal was indeed to go all-OLED at some point in the future.

For this year, Apple is expected to launch three new iPhone models: a 5.8-inch OLED iPhone, a 6.5-inch OLED iPhone and a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone.