iPhone 8 rumors: OLED screens featuring in next flagship?

A promotional image for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 PlusApple

Apple just released their iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on the market last September, but details about the iPhone 8 are starting to come out.

Latest reports claimed that the soon-to-be released iPhone 8 will be using OLED screens compared to the LED screen that comes out with the current iPhone edition.

Nikkei Asian Review revealed that Sharp Corporation president Tai Jeng-wu confirmed the reports during his speech at the Tatung University in Taipei, Taiwan.

"The iPhone has been evolving and now it is switching from LTPS (low-temperature poly-silicon) to OLED panels," Tai said in front of the attendees during the awarding ceremony for his honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater. "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," he added.

If the Cupertino-based tech giant will use the OLED screens for the iPhone 8 instead of the LTPS screens that are currently present in the iPhone 7 variants, its screen will have a sharper color that could help make the images come to life.

OLED screens are also flexible enough to let manufacturers use it to form curved or foldable screens. At the moment, South Korean mobile phone manufacturer Samsung already uses OLED screens for their flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and discontinued Galaxy Note 7.

While Tai did not reveal when exactly will they begin delivering the OLED screens to Apple Inc. But he did confirm that Sharp Corporation will start building a brand-new OLED manufacturing facility in Japan. He also added that they can also manufacture OLED panels in the U.S. if they were asked to by their client to do so.

The rumored iPhone 8 device and its possible bigger counterpart called the iPhone 8 Plus are expected to be released sometime in 2017.