Apple owns a patent on foldable display technology and the latest sign that Tim Cook & Co. might be working on a foldable iPhone comes courtesy of ETNews, which learned that Samsung Display provided samples of its foldable screens to Apple, Google and other major technology makers.
Industry sources told the publication that Samsung’s display-making arm recently sent samples of foldable displays to Apple. The Cupertino tech giant has reportedly evaluated Samsung’s 7.2-inch foldable OLED panels.
For context, the South Korean conglomerate has used similar foldable display technology in its Galaxy Fold smartphone/tablet hybrid, which features a 7.1-inch display when unfolded.
Analysts cautioned following the Galaxy Fold introduction that any company wishing to rival these smartphones may have to cope with the fact that Samsung could prioritize its own smartphones. The ETNews report, however, says that Samsung isn’t really interested in keeping this exciting technology exclusive to its Galaxy portfolio.
As a matter of fact, sources told ETNews that Samsung is apparently ready to scale this technology from the current output of 2.4 million foldable panels per year to about 10 million units per year.
Samsung, of course, has been the sole supplier of flexible OLED panels for Apple’s iPhone line since the September 2017 iPhone X introduction, but rival LG Display is expected to land some of those orders at some point in the future.
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