Cash-strapped Japan Display will be supplying the OLED screens for the upcoming Apple Watch Series 5.
Reuters reports that two sources told them Japan Display Inc will begin to supply organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for the Apple Watch later this year.
The deal would mark the Japanese firm’s first foray into the OLED display market, says Reuters’ sources.
That’s good news for the display maker, who took quite a hit to its bottom line when Apple’s iPhone lineup shifted from traditional LCD screens to OLED displays. The firm relied on Apple’s LCD screen needs for over half its revenue in the year ended March 2018.
In this year’s iPhone lineup, only the iPhone XR sported an LCD screen, and the XR’s reportedly less-than-exciting sales numbers couldn’t have helped Japan Display’s bottom line. Plus, it has been much-rumored that the 2020 iPhone lineup could be an all-OLED display lineup.
Reuters says Japan Display is looking to raise as much as $990 million in new financing, which should help the firm get ready to manufacture the OLED Apple Watch displays.
Apple currently relies on frenemy Samsung for its OLED display needs, and is reportedly pushing LG Display to expand its OLED production capabilities, even going so far as to purchase equipment to build an OLED panel research and development site in Taiwan.