Sources: Apple expects to sell more iPhones with LCD screens than with pricier OLEDs in its fall lineup, plans to release at least one LCD model in 2019
Apple expects to sell more iPhones with LCD screens than pricey OLED models in its coming lineup: sources
Context & Ripple Effects
This report closes a loop that opened back when supply constraints were expected to limit the 2017 iPhone to a single OLED model while the rest of the lineup stayed on LCD. Apple then kept a two-tier display strategy: one premium curved-OLED flagship alongside two LCD models, per the home-button-free 2017 lineup reports.
What changed by mid-2018 is the economics: OLED is expensive enough that Apple expects the cheaper LCD tier to carry the majority of unit sales, even as it hedges supply by adding LG Display as a second OLED supplier shipping an initial 2M–4M units. The plan for at least one more LCD model in 2019 reads as a bridge, not a commitment.
First-order effects
- Apple's fall lineup is priced around the expectation that most buyers take the LCD tier, making the OLED flagships margin products rather than volume drivers.
- LG Display's entry as a second OLED source directly loosens the single-supply constraint that kept earlier lineups mostly LCD.
Second-order effects
- LCD panel suppliers face a dated end to their iPhone business: Apple has already signaled dropping LCD altogether from its 2020 lineup, so any capacity built for the 2019 LCD model has a short payback window.
- Qualifying a second OLED supplier shifts pricing leverage away from the incumbent OLED maker, since Apple can now split orders across two sources.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, display tiering disappears entirely — the SE-to-flagship range converges on OLED, as later reporting on all-OLED iPhones from 2025 confirms — and handset differentiation moves from screen technology to design flexibility OLED enables.
- Supplier structure consolidates around whichever panel makers survive Apple's multi-year qualification cycle, turning display sourcing into a two-or-three-vendor market rather than a commodity buy.
The trend: iPhone displays are migrating from a cost-tiered LCD/OLED mix to an all-OLED lineup, with the pace set by how fast Apple qualifies second and third panel suppliers.