Apple's iPhone Pro offers a Super Retina XDR display with 2532‑by‑1170-pixel resolution at 460ppi. Today we're learning that Samsung Display has been chosen to lead a national project to develop oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) technology for mobile devices with 1,000ppi OLED panels.

The South Korean display panel maker will aim to develop the oxide TFT which will support electron movements ten times faster than it is currently available now by 2024.

Current electron movement on oxide TFTs are around 10 centimeter-square/Vs.

Samsung Display will aim to lower power consumption and production costs for the oxide TFT.

The project is one of 66 given by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to develop next-generation display technologies by 2025.

Another South Korean project given by the Ministry of Trade this week relates to future displays for AR Glasses that Apple may be able to take advantage of.

On AR Glasses

Another Korean tech report noted this week that APS Holdings had been named to lead a project to develop MicroOLED displays for use in augmented reality (AR) with the aim to develop a 4,000ppi AR glass prototype by 2024.

AR glasses that are usually used outdoors and so this means that the displays used for them must have high luminance for outdoor visibility. For VR, making the displays lighter and thinner are the challenge.

Most current AR and VR devices have a white OLED and color filter atop the silicon substrate. Because of the required color filter, high luminance has been difficult to achieve.

APS Holdings said it believes RGB OLED, where there is no white pixel or a color filter, will be needed for high luminance AR and VR devices.

RGB OLED offers high luminance, lower power consumption, low heat and fast response time, the company said.

However, the fine metal mask (FMM) needed for OLED deposition has been difficult to make so far, APS said. FMM is a mask used in the production of small OLED panels. Currently technology can only offer up to 600ppi at best. This is where the next phase of research will focus on so as to be able to deliver the goal of 4,000ppi.

Because South Korean companies like Samsung and LG are global leaders in mobile device displays today, it's very possible that the country's focus on keeping South Korea the leader in displays ahead of China will succeed.

Considering that Apple has a long standing relationship with leading Korean display suppliers, it's clear that the company will be one of the first to take advantage of these future advancements presented in this report for future iDevices, smartglasses and MR headsets.