The iPhone is bringing billions into the coffers of Samsung and LG – now Apple wants to change that

Own displays
The iPhone is bringing billions into the coffers of Samsung and LG – now Apple wants to change that

Apple’s displays are among the best on the market – but they are made by the competition. Now the group wants to rely on in-house developments. This is a big blow for Samsung and LG.

It’s the feature that most people use the most – without even thinking about it. Without a screen, smartphones, notebooks or tablets are hardly conceivable for sighted people. So it’s no wonder that companies like Apple try to set their premium products apart from the crowd with particularly stylish displays. The group is now planning a giant step: the first Apple device with its own display could come onto the market as early as next year.

This is reported by the usually well-informed journalist Mark Gurman on “Bloomberg”. According to its insider sources, the group is working on gradually converting its product portfolio to its own displays. The Apple Watch is taking the first step: according to internal plans, the first model that will feature an Apple screen instead of a third-party screen should appear as early as autumn 2024.

Bad news for Samsung and Co.

In the industry, this message should cause concern. Because even if Apple’s hardware is often praised as being of particularly high quality, most of the components actually come from third-party suppliers – some of which are even competitors. The cameras are supplied by Sony, for example, and modems by the chip manufacturer Qualcomm. So far, Apple has also obtained the displays from outside: They are mostly manufactured by Samsung and LG.

A failure of Apple as a customer would be a serious loss for both companies. Although the corporations are Apple’s competitors in many fields, they have so far been able to benefit from the great success of Apple products as suppliers. And not too scarce: According to “Bloomberg”, sales to Apple make up 36 percent of LG’s display division, and Samsung even accounts for 6.6 percent of total sales. In both cases, the sums involved are in the billions.

Apple relies on self-construction

Apple has been trying to design an increasing number of components for its devices itself for a while. According to rumours, the group is also working on replacing the modems purchased for mobile phone connections with its own. The best-known example is certainly the processors called Apple Silicon. At first, the company used its own chips for the iPhone and iPad, and has repeatedly outperformed the competition with them. The biggest breakthrough came when, in 2020, the M chips were also used to supply Mac computers with their own processors – and the competition was left behind in one fell swoop. Almost all Apple devices now run on their own chips.

For Apple, it’s not so much about money – after all, the Apple chips are also commissioned by third-party suppliers. Rather, the in-house development of the components allows Apple’s designers to design the devices according to their own requirements and feature requests. Apple’s notebook chips are not only powerful, but also extremely energy-efficient. And thus increasingly allow longer battery life.

view in the future

Apple also seems to have its own ideas for the displays. The screens planned for the Apple Watch should not only display the content brighter, but completely differently than conventional displays. For this purpose, Apple relies on the MicroLEDs, which are traded as the future of the display, instead of the OLED technology previously used. And then implements it in its own way: the display of the planned watch is not only extremely bright, it looks as if what is shown is painted on the surface of the screen, insiders enthused about “Bloomberg”.

The fact that they are initially only planned for the Apple Watch is apparently a compromise. Accordingly, Apple initially started its display development with the idea of ​​supplying the larger screens in its own portfolio with in-house developments. But because difficulties had arisen, the very small displays of the Apple Watch should now serve as a test balloon. Only later should other devices and even the iPhone also be converted to their own screens.

One of the most important uses could be a product that Apple has not yet announced: After rumors about VR glasses from the group for a few years, they will probably be ready in 2023 (find out more here). Because the screens of such glasses are extremely close to the eye, they benefit in particular from the extremely high resolutions and refresh rates that are possible with MicroLEDs. The first model is likely to rely on other screen technologies.

No quick change

Apple is in no hurry with its own display panels anyway. According to Gurman, the first plans for the development were already in place in 2014, and from 2018 efforts were then ramped up again significantly. Overall, the group would have already invested several billions in order to be able to develop the screens according to their own requirements. Insiders told Gurman that it was one of the most important projects rated internally, right after their own car and AR/VR glasses.

So it’s not surprising that Apple would rather postpone its plans than deliver a half-baked product. According to the initial plans, the first devices should have had a self-developed display as early as 2020, but due to the costs and technical challenges, this will probably not be the case until 2024 at the earliest. And that too is apparently anything but certain: Internally, another postponement to 2025 is anything but impossible. So LG and Samsung can breathe easy for a while.

Source:Bloomberg

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