Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu confirmed last Saturday market rumors that Cupertino-based Apple will be adapting OLED screens in its next generation iPhones, reported Nikkei Asian review.

Tai, who is also a senior executive at Sharp’s parent company Foxconn Technology Group, asserted Apple is redesigning its smartphones to boost sales during iPhone’s 10^th anniversary in 2017.

Speaking to students at his alma mater Tatung University, where he was bestowed with an honorary doctorate degree, Tai told students the iPhone will be swapping Low-Temperature Poly Silicon LCD screens for OLED panels.

"The iPhone has been evolving and now it is switching from LTPS (low-temperature poly-silicon) to OLED panels," Tai told students at Tatung University, his alma mater, during a ceremony in which he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.

"We don't know whether Apple's OLED iPhones will be a hit, but if Apple doesn't walk down this path and transform itself, there will be no innovation. It is a crisis but it is also an opportunity," Tai said.

Apple’s reported its first sales decline since September 2001 this year, as iPhone sales eased due to lack of innovative features in iPhone 7.

Sharp supplies LTPS panels to Apple, but has very limited OLED production capacity.

Tai did not comment on when iPhones would start employing OLED screens, but asserted Sharp was committed to developing OLED technology.

Not only is the former Japanese electronic manufacturer building a new OLED facility in Japan, it also intends to build OLED facilities in U.S. too, he added. "If our key customer demands us to manufacture in the U.S., is it possible for us not to do so?"

Earlier Nikkei Asian Review reports had noted Apple would be launching a curved OLED screen in its premium 5.5-inch mobile phones, while its two other models will sport LTPS LCD panels.