Future iPhones may come with one new feature and one less if recent reports are to be believed.
Apple supplier LG Display announced last week that it will invest $8.7 billion to build a plant to make organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, sparking speculation that the next iPhone will come with the refined display.
The LG plant, which will be called P10, will cover an area the size of 14 football fields and is targeted to start production in the first half of 2018. Though the company said the plant will focus primarily on the production of “both large-size OLED TV panels and flexible OLED panels for smartwatches and automotive displays,” an analyst speaking to Bloomberg Thursday suggested the plant could also become a supplier for OLED iPhone screens.
Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review reported, without naming a source, that Apple is planning to adopt OLED screens for the iPhone in 2018.
Additionally, according to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple is considering dropping the 3.5mm headphone jack from future iPhones in favor of its proprietary Lightning connector or Bluetooth-enabled earpieces. The report states that the next iPhone would come bundled with a pair of the new Lightning connector headphones that plug into the phone’s charging port.
The logic behind such a switch is that it would allow Apple to shave another millimeter off the iPhone, making the next version the thinnest ever.