LG reportedly partnering with Apple and Google on out-foldable OLED panels

LG Display is reportedly readying out-foldable OLED panels to go into mass production in 2018. According to Korean news website etnews, the company will work with, and supply to, Apple, Google and Microsoft, as it competes with Samsung in the foldable display market.

LG has reportedly already developed a prototype for the out-foldable panel – an outward-facing flexible display which could be potentially used like a tablet when flat (see the Lenovo concept in the picture above) – after investing an estimated $1.75 billion on flexible displays in July 2016. LG also showed off a functioning, 18-inch, rollable display at CES 2016.

In what capacity LG is working with Apple, Google and Microsoft wasn’t specified, though etnews said they had already been secured as “first buyers” of the upcoming displays.

Recently, rumors that Samsung would introduce its own out-foldable panels heated up after news broke that the company could be planning to reveal two new foldable smartphone designs.

As with any rumor, and particularly one which has circulated for a number of years, take the speculation with a pinch of salt.