iPhone 8 Rumors: Sharp President Confirms Next iPhone Will Adopt OLED Panels

Apple’s iPhone 8 will adopt OLED panels, according to remarks from Sharp CEO Tai Jeng-wu.

Tai, who joined Sharp as president in August after Foxconn completed its acquisition of the Japanese tech firm, revealed the news during a speech given to students at Tatung University.

"The iPhone has been evolving and now it is switching from LTPS [low-temperature poly-silicon] to OLED panels," he said during a ceremony in which he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.

"We don't know whether Apple's OLED iPhones will be a hit, but if Apple doesn't walk down this path and transform itself, there will be no innovation. It is a crisis but it is also an opportunity.”

Tai didn’t say when Apple will make the jump but said: “We are now building a new [OLED] facility in Japan. We can make [OLED panels] in the US too. If our key customer demands [that we] manufacture in the US, is it possible for us not to do so?”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Apple considering OLED for the next-generation iPhone, which will arrive as the iPhone 8 rather than the iPhone 7S.

The report from Nikkei Asian Review also noted that Apple will most likely create three iPhone variants next year, and only the 5.5-inch model would feature curved OLED screen, with the other two models using the LTPS panels.

Reports also claim that the iPhone 8 will be released in September 2017, will be the first Apple smartphone with wireless charging.

Bloomberg reported that Apple is “exploring cutting-edge technologies that would allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than the charging mats used with current smartphones.”