With Apple gunning for a revolutionary iPhone 8, LG is reportedly on board to supply a foldable OLED display panel. The dev community is always in competition to possess and incorporate the latest technological advancements to their respective flagship phones, and 2017 might be the year for foldable phones.

This means that the next race will be about who can bring the most flexible, rollable, and paper-thin screen display. As recent reports suggested, LG partnered with Apple, Google, and Microsoft for the mass production of out-foldable OLED displays.

The OLED technology is crucial to make foldable smartphones possible. With such, the device can be thinner and lighter and it can take any shapes beyond the standard rectangular screen of today.

While Samsung pioneered the OLED technology, LG reportedly invested about $803M in display panels. The company, in fact, has already developed a prototype.

This further fueled up rumors that Apple will soon be introducing a foldable iPhone, which will be a major game changer for the upcoming iPhone 8. ValueWalk reported that Apple will likely take on a foldable display panel considering that is iPhone line has relatively lagged in terms of display technology.

News did not much offer about the actual look of the consumer device, but indicated that foldable smartphone will be rolling out in the near future. It might not only come from Apple considering that LG also reportedly partnered with Google and Microsoft.

Apple iPhone 8 is expected to arrive in 2017 and, inevitably, the foldable smartphones with it. In an earlier report of The Investor, Hyundai Securities analyst Kim Don-won predicted that Samsung and LG will be launching foldable smartphones next year.

"The year 2017 will be the first year of foldable smartphones for the mass market. Following the launches by Korean firms, other global rivals such as Apple and Google are also likely to unveil their own versions in 2018," claimed Dong-won.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

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