Towards the end of last year, reputed KGI securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed that Apple was planning to launch three iPhone variants in 2018, with two of them featuring 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED displays, with the third featuring a 6.1-inch TFT-LCD panel. Soon thereafter, reports in January revealed that Apple was in talks with Japan Display (JDI) to supply 6.1-inch “Full Active” LCD panels for the low-end iPhone.
The report from Korea’s ETNews has had a drastic effect on Japan Display’s shares which plunged over 20 percent due to the report. Japan Display is one of the primary suppliers of LCD panels for the iPhones and hasn’t completed its transition to manufacturing OLED displays yet. The company is expected to start production of OLED panels in 2019, but might not be able to meet Apple’s demands for next year’s iPhones.
