Monday, January 12, 2009

Apple Wants Flat OLED Screens from LG, Signs to Get Them

LG Display makes long-term agreement with the Mac maker

LG Display has struck a long-term deal with Apple to produce 15-inch organic, light emitting diode (OLED) displays for use in its devices. The screen being displayed at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week is just 1.4 millimeters thick and is being prepared for mass production as you are reading this piece.

LG made it official today that Apple and the South Korean chaebol would be providing Apple with its new panels for five years. The deal is very important to the world's second largest LCD maker in times like these, reports suggest. The contract between the two companies calls for LG to receive an advance payment of $500 million sometime this month.

However, it's not just Apple's desktop computers and notebooks that are getting the new screens, but even the company's iPods and iPhones, the same reports show. LG Display and Apple were going to decide later on details such as the number of panels LG would provide, LG said in a statement. The Seoul-based conglomerate declined to provide further details.

OLED is a new-generation flat-panel display technology that uses organic matter that emits its own light, outperforming LED backlit displays, which aren't even obsolete yet. Besides helping Apple achieve ever thinner designs and longer battery life, the new screens will also help drive Apple's environmental commitment forward, as they use up less power. OLED screens also handle fast-moving images better, while color has more pop than on current LCDs and PDPs (plasma display panels). The LG widescreen panel has a resolution of 1,366x768 and a lifetime of 30,000 hours.

"It's likely to come in the second half of this year, as soon as we get customers," Kim Won, director of OLED sales and marketing at LG Display, said, as the company was announcing its new product. "It's not a good time for us to launch this type of luxurious product, because the market is in recession, but we think it's time for us to invest in marketing," Won added, before the agreement with the Mac maker was publicized. "We have to communicate with customers about advanced products."