An OLED screen on a smartphone isn’t anything new, Samsung has been doing it for years. But many smartphones are still using IPS displays which means OLED screen production isn’t as high. Even Apple is finally jumping in on the OLED screen bandwagon by ordering 70 million screens from Samsung.
We already know Samsung’s latest S8 is sporting an OLED and with Apple jumping on OLED, it makes sense Google wants to invest in OLED. The Google Pixel 2 is probably going to happen at the end of this year and if this $880 million dollar offer to LG is an indicator, Google is likely ramping up their push of the already OLED-equipped Pixel. The Pixel is Google’s first real attempt at a mass-marketed high-end consumer smartphone and they’ll have to pull out all the guns against both the S8 and iPhone 8.
Google Inc has offered to invest at least 1 trillion won ($880.29 million) to help South Korea’s LG Display Co Ltd (034220.KS) boost output of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for smartphones, the Electronic Times reported on Monday citing unnamed sources. The paper said Google offered the investment to secure a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for its next Pixel smartphones.
Google is no stranger to the smartphone space as they’ve been at it for years with their Nexus lineup, but the Pixel launch has been a bit of a rough go. Google has been plagued by a shortage of the phone, leaving many buyers having to wait. Of course, we know consumers aren’t ones to wait around for long. Perhaps Google is looking to get ahead of the game for its next Pixel launch with this investment. Being able to have the supply to meet the demand could very well catapult the company’s flagship phone to a position they feel it should be. Reuters says LG declined to comment and they could not reach Google for comment.
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[button link=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-lg-display-idUSKBN17C00M” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Reuters[/button]
