Apple iPhone 8: Why Samsung will benefit from the future iPhone

Apple hasn’t even said a word about the iPhone 7’s successor, yet the buzz surrounding the iPhone 8 is growing and getting louder by the day. Rumours about the future iPhone have already made rounds online, but one of them is turning out to be true.

A lot of iPhone 8 speculations have been popping up over the last few weeks, one of them is that at least one iPhone 8 variant will feature an OLED display. Apple to date has been using LCD displays on its iPhone handsets, so switching to OLED will be another milestone for the tech giant that will surely be welcomed by fans. Apple has also been using OLED on its accessories like the Apple Watch and the Touch Bar of the new MacBook Pro.

Although a number of recent reports indicate that Apple will indeed equip future iPhone displays with OLED screens, a new one is essentially sealing the deal. The Cupertino-based company’s latest Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K filing has information that strongly implies what the company tends to develop for the future.

According to AppleInsider, the investment firm J.P. Morgan dug into Apple’s 10-K filing and saw purchase orders reaching more than a year in duration, which is a first for the company. The firm believes that the deals are between Apple and Samsung, which is the primary supplier of OLED. The placed purchase orders amount to a staggering US$4 billion (AU$5.2 billion). The orders seem to go along with an “off-balance sheet obligation” involving the same amount from the third quarter.

Samsung is expected to ultimately benefit from this. The iPhone 8 is widely foreseen to be the first Apple smartphone to feature an OLED display. The iPhone 8’s demand alone will likely skyrocket Samsung’s OLED sales. Samsung, of course, will have to beat out other suppliers first. The list includes Sharp, LG and even Japan Display, which is shifting from LCD manufacturing to OLED.

It has been widely reported that the future iPhone 8 will be released next year in three variants: one premium “plus” model and two standard versions. The iPhone 8 Plus is likely to equip the OLED display. Just recently, Apple has also owned a patent for a foldable and bendable iPhone concept, but it will take the company a while before it actually makes use of such technology.