Foldable iPhone? LG to Supply Apple, Google And Microsoft With Bendable Displays

LG’s display department will begin mass-producing foldable displays for smartphones in 2018, and will supply them to Apple, Google and Microsoft, South Korean site ETNews reported Friday.

It is predicted that LG’s and Samsung’s display divisions will compete against one another in order to “grab upper hands in markets for foldable displays,” according to ETNews. Apple, Google and Microsoft were listed as first buyers of LG foldable displays. The company has previously developed prototypes for foldable smartphones.

Apple seems to have an interest in foldable phones.

In November, Apple was granted a patent for a flexible phone. The patent, filed in July 2014, shows the company has been looking into a hinged iPhone model, but hints that it might be other “electronic devices” as well. The patent for “flexible display devices” reveals a touchscreen phone with a flexible, metal-backed OLED display that can be folded in half.

2017 iPhone 8 Rumors

Red iPhone

Apple will update its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices in 2017 to "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus," and will include a red iPhone, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara. The new phones will have the same aluminum design as Apple’s most recent iPhones, but will have internal changes, including the addition of a faster A11 chip, the blog said.

3 Models

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will release three new iPhones next year. He says the company will roll out a 4.7-inch model with a single-lens camera and LCD display, a 5.5-inch model with a dual-lens camera and LCD display, as well as an all-new OLED model with a dual-lens camera.

Bezel-Less Design

Barclays analysts have said Apple will release a 5-inch LCD iPhone and 5.8-inch OLED iPhone. The devices were rumored to be curved with a bezel-less design.

Meanwhile, Apple is preparing for its biggest iPhone sales on record next year, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the smartphones.