New Display Technology To be Used For Future Apple Devices
Recent reports suggest Apple is going to operate important changes for the company’s devices that will be released next year. It seems these changes are related to display size and technology, for the company’s iPhone, iPad and MacBooks series.
The report hints that the next iPhone model, the iPhone 6, could be released with a substantially larger display, of 5 inches, 1 inch larger than the iPhone 5S’ display. The same is suggested about next year’s iPad , as it could jump from a 9.7 inches display (the current iPad 4′s display size) to a larger display, of 12.9 inches. The report claims that another possibility is that of Apple splitting the iPad lineup in premium models and low budget models, each featuring a different display size (with the premium models having a 12.9 inch display).
The same report also mentioned the next iPad mini will be released next year, and it will benefit from a higher resolution display (probably a Retina display). Besides that it seems that next year Apple will start to include flexible OLED displays in its devices, the first device to benefit from the flexible display technology being rumored to be the iWatch, Apple’s long rumored smart watch. Other rumors included in the report suggest Apple may use more power efficient LED displays for MacBooks.
The direct consequence of equipping its next generation devices with new display technology, is that Apple will increase its reliance on Samsung and LG for display manufacturing, at the same time continuing to use displays from Japan Display.
Even though the iPhone 5S has just been released, iPhone 6 rumors started to appear for quite some time; however nothing is known about the iPhone 6′s display size. Sometime ago, a Wall Street Journal claimed Apple was testing iPhone prototypes with display sizes from 4.8 inches to 6 inches. Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst for KGI Securities, estimated that next year’s iPhone 6 will be released with a larger display than current iPhone models, ranging from 4.4 inches to 5 inches.
Some of this report’s claims make sens, as the Cupertino based giant tries to diversify its product lines in order to expand its reach. It is worth noting that this is not the first report to suggest Apple is prototyping a 12.9 (or 13) inches iPad, so there may be true to that claim.
There are arguments against the next generation iPad lineup being split in premium models and low budget models. Instead, it may seem more likely that Apple will simply offer the 7.9 inch iPad mini, the 9.7 inch iPad, and the 12.9 inch bigger iPad as different options, similarly to what Apple is doing with notebooks.
It also makes sense that in the future Apple will integrate OLED displays into its products; there is already quite a bit of evidence that Apple is preparing to introduce OLED display into its product lines. While Apple CEO, Tim Cook, recently said that OLED displays are inferior to what the company currently offers, mentioning that “If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what the color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display [...]“. Even so the technology could still be important for Apple as the company explores smaller, wearable devices.
At this point it is hard to say with certainty which of the rumors mentioned in the recent report are plausible; however it is safe to assume that (given the current trend in technology) at least some of them will turn out to be accurate. Next year will be an important year for mobile display technology.
