Apple Looks To Improve OLED Displays For Future iPhones With New Invention

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When it comes to displays, OLED is one of the greats of the likely future. They offer some really impressive color schemes, better blacks, and better power use leading to improvements in battery life. But the biggest failing of an OLED screen, at last report, was its difficulty in putting up big expanses of white. But thanks to a recently unearthed patent document going back to last year, Apple may be closer than expected to making OLED displays happen on future iPhone releases.

The patent in question revolves around an almost disturbingly simple fix: instead of having the OLED display all the colors, including the color white (which is common for use in, say, word processing apps where it looks like you’re writing on a sheet of paper), take a transparent OLED display and put it  above a background layer that is, you guessed it, solid white. Then, between the white background layer and the transparent OLED display, add a switchable layer that can go clear to opaque, such that when white isn’t needed, it’s hidden away behind the opaque layer, and when white is needed, the white emerges as necessary.

Basically, that removes the need for the OLED layer to have to display all the white itself, and instead allows it to focus on the colors, which it can do much better and with much less drain on a battery. When will this technology find its way into new iPhones and other devices? There’s no telling, just yet, but we may not be three years out after all, as Apple had originally suggested.

Putting OLED screens on Apple devices would give them extra edge in the marketplace, an item of constant importance, especially as more competition emerges and Apple’s market fragments. Just because Apple is top dog today doesn’t mean it will be top dog tomorrow, not without future development, and this is one terrific step in that direction.

So what do you guys think here? Will we be seeing new OLED technology emerge for iPhones soon? Or is this a patent that won’t see the light of day? Either way, we want to hear from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!