Smarthouse has a particularly bad reputation when it comes to Apple rumors, especially when they involve OLEDs. But we’ll bite on their latest because it is so tantalizing.
There are no shortage of people advocating for an integrated Apple television, but certainly the leader is Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster who expects one next year.
On Friday LG said that they will launch a limited production OLED TV late in 2012.
As far as the big display makers are concerned, Apple’s relationship with LG is probably the strongest. LG makes iPod Touch and iPhone Retina Displays and Apple secured a $500 million dollar investment in LG displays in 2009. The net of that was a temporary exclusive on the panels for the 27-inch display that Apple’s iMacs and now Thunderbolt Displays now use. Sony makes OLEDs as well but doesn’t have a strong relationship with Apple, at least as far as displays are concerned. The other big OLED maker is Samsung, who is now tangled with Apple in patent disputes.
If Apple does do a TV, it will likely have some sort of game-changer tech innovation that Apple could exclusively own for a period of time. A 55-inch OLED would probably qualify even though yields will be low and prices will be astronomical during the ramp up.
We’re still not convinced, however.
- LG Display CEO: Retina Display coming to iPad, non-Apple smartphones (9to5mac.com)
- Apple exploring glass-less 3D displays with transparent OLED panels (9to5mac.com)
- Apple quality-testing 2048-by-1536 iPad 3 displays from Samsung and LG (9to5mac.com)
