In April Patently Apple posted a report titled "Will Apple Extend their use of OLED Displays to Future iPads, MacBooks & Beyond?" The report hinted that Samsung was going to offer customers the ability to use OLED displays beyond just smartphones and through to PCs. Well, the 'MacBooks & Beyond' aspect of our byline for now has already come to life in Apple's new MacBook in the form of their 'Touch Bar,' and a Korean tech report published today suggests that Apple may extend OLED to the main display in the future.

The report noted that "Apple has introduced Samsung Display's OLED panels for its new MacBook's 'Touch Bar.' Apple is also currently looking into using OLED rather than LCD for its MacBook's display along with iPhones. Just like Smartphones, shift in generation from OLED to LCD will get stronger for laptops as well. Changes in dynamics of display markets are also expected due to the alliance between Apple and Samsung Display.

According to an industry on the 31st, Apple installed Samsung Display's OLED panel for touch screen bar for its new MacBook Pro. This panel is rigid-type OLED that is produced from Samsung Display's A2 Line. It is heard that Driver IC was supplied by Samsung Electronics' System LSI Business Department and that its design was partially changed to link between a laptop and a touch bar."

The report further noted that "A reason why Apple has applied an OLED panel to the MacBook Pro's touch bar is because of the OLED panel's structure. Its thickness is three times thinner than an LCD panel that has BLU (Back-Light Unit)."

Apple is looking to use OLED display rather than LCD display for its future MacBook series and it is actively expanding uses of OLED displays for its major products. In fact one insider clearly stated that "Apple is currently looking into ways of using OLED panels for MacBooks and testing their performance."

What could be a temporary issue for Apple could eventually be worked around, but for now it's real. The report noted that "Samsung Electronics, Dell, HP, and Lenovo have already introduced laptops with OLED panels rather than LCD panels this year because of their strengths being clear quality and thinness. However, these laptops usually use a white background and have difficulties in implementing OLEDs distinct black color and use a lot of electricity as they use white screen most of times."

Apple has partially used OLED panels for only the touch bar and not for entire panel. By doing that, the MacBook implements a black screen as a basic option for the main display and in this way Apple can enjoy strengths of OLEDs such as clear quality, low electricity consumption, and fast response speed for their Touch Bar while receiving the traditional benefits of LCD for the MacBook's main display.

With Apple's Jony Ive obsessed with making the MacBook Pro even thinner over time, the eventual leap to OLED displays will allow him to achieve that goal if they can work around some of the traditional OLED display problems.

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