The sales of iPhone X turned out to be less than market expectation, so Samsung has lowered the utilization rate of OLED production lines. The tight supply of OLED panels over the past two years has also been eased. According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, Apple has initiated the trend of OLED panels, and it is estimated that the penetration rate of OLED panel in smartphones will reach 46% by 2021. Mini LED is overwhelmed by OLED’s technology maturity and competitive costs, so it might be hard for Mini LED to grow in the smartphone market in short term.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 has concluded and major smartphone vendors at the event have unveiled their smartphone lineup for this year, revealing the development trends in smartphone technology and specifications. According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, full-screen smartphones will become the trend in market this year. The pursuit of narrower bezels and notch designs has emerged, bringing about solutions of under-display fingerprint sensor and applications combining camera modules and facial recognition.

Apple’s launch of iPhone X has led to a wave of 3D sensing technology, bringing its key component—vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)—into the spotlight. However, the number of VCSEL suppliers with mass production capacity is very limited due to technical barriers, leading to short supply of VCSELs and thus delaying Android camp’s plan to follow suit. TrendForce estimates the penetration rate of 3D sensing in smartphones will grow from 2.1% in 2017 to 13.1% in 2018, while Apple remains the major adopter.

Here begins a debate: when Mini LED is ready to enter the smartphone display market, it have to face an oversupply of OLED screens. Does Mini LED still have chances to grow in this space? And for how long can it last?

Display makers have been scrambling for the production of smartphone OLED screens for the iPhone X; however, the phone faces a tepid sales and even a possibility to be discontinued in 2018.

Since Apple joined to share some of the OLED supply for its iPhone X in 2017, the shortage of OLED panels has become intensified. Because of the agreement Apple signed with the exclusive supplier Samsung, Apple always stays in the list as the top priority that a large proportion of the OLED supply goes to. Other smartphone manufacturers struggle as they also want to use OLED panels for their products but the supply is simply not enough. Thus, they, the Chinese smartphone brands in particular, turned to Mini LED.

To be fair, none of the products launched in 2017 can arouse such a heated discussion as the iPhone X did. Its futuristic appearance, including the notch at the top of its OLED screen, attracted a lot of attention. Apart from that, the public also anticipated it to launch Apple Watch Series 3 featuring a Micro LED display but it did not happen.

Apple has introduced 3D sensing modules in iPhone X for the first time, together with neural network embedded in its A11 chip. 3D sensing modules record three-dimensional data while A11 chip processes large amounts of data, allowing iPhone X to learn and identify a variety of facial details and expressions. The modules also ensure that users can be correctly identified even when their appearances change, making it more difficult to counterfeit.

Apple has introduced 3D sensing modules in iPhone X for the first time, together with neural network embedded in its A11 chip. 3D sensing modules record three-dimensional data while A11 chip processes large amounts of data, allowing iPhone X to learn and identify a variety of facial details and expressions. The modules also ensure that users can be correctly identified even when their appearances change, making it more difficult to counterfeit.

3D facial recognition has come into the spotlight after Apple’s introduction of Face ID in the iPhone X. Companies in the supply chain have also become the new focuses of inestors. In fact, 3D sensing technology has been around for years, but did not have commercial applications of facial recognition in smartphones until 2017. The reasons why it happened in 2017 can be explained in terms of components, modules andsubsystems, computing and systems, end-devices and applications.

VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) technology has been at the center stage in the tech world of late, in the wake of the debut of the new iPhone X, which contains a 3D sensing module with VCSELs as its core components. Their importance even made Apple fork over quite an amount of money to secure some of the VCSEL shipment from Finisar, a laser chip producer.

Apple today announced the latest award from its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Finisar, a manufacturer of optical communications components, will receive $390 million as part of Apple’s commitment to support innovation and job creation by American manufacturers.

Famed KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in his latest report that shipping estimates of the iPhone X have improved to 1-2 weeks in large part because of better-than-expected enhancements in the supply chain, rather than weak demand, reported MacRumors. The worldwide demand for the iPhone X remains strong.

Just been out on the market for a short time, the iPhone X is reported to experience a hardware problem. A vertical green line is reported to appear on the phone’s iconic OLED display, which TechCrunch suggested to be possibly related to an electrical flaw.

Well, it is not much of a surprise that the design and features of the iPhone X are largely in line with expectations. It, different from all previous iPhones, sports a full screen OLED display with a bit of ‘bangs’, where Apple puts the sensors, cameras, and the speaker. “For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realization of that vision,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer.