What They Say
The respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is reported by MacRumors.com as saying that Apple is planning an 8″ QHD+ flexible OLED-based folding smartphone in 2023. Samsung is likely to be the exclusive supplier of displays and Samsung Foundry as the exclusive DDI provider. He also forecast that the smartphone would use silver nanowire from TPK for the touch system rather than SDC’s Y-Octa touch technology. Advantages are in supporting multiple folds (vs current single folds) and support of rollable and larger displays. The nanowire is being used in the Apple HomePod.
Kuo forecast that Apple would ship 15 million to 20 million folding iPhones in 2023.
What We Think
There’s nothing here I would argue with, but I’m not that close to the iPhone supply chain.
We reported on TPK and its silver nanowire touch in 2018 from the SID Business Conference (BC14 TPK Breaks Cover and Explains Business) It was working on the technology from Cambrios which we reported on from 2009 and which became a new company with new investors in 2019 (Cambrios, Risen from the Ashes, Now Spreads its Wings) (BR)
