Apple's Rumored Deal With JDI Could Bring Us Everything We're Hoping For

Apple loves to have a tight supply chain — one they can control, which will yield the parts they want. They tried in earnest to get Sapphire glass up and running with a partnership with GT Advanced, which ended up a disaster. Now they're reportedly turning to a much more solid partner for display technology. Though you may not have heard of Japan Display Inc (JDI), you've likely seen their work. Though the report is fairly benign, it has a lot of interesting angles (pun intended). The deal will reportedly see Apple dump just shy of $2 billion into a new plant.

This deal will give Apple and JDI a new facility, which will also see JDI shoulder the bulk of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus orders. This plant is reportedly going to go up in Ishikawa, Japan, and will churn low-temperature polysilicon displays Apple first used for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

This all comes form unnamed sources who say the talks are just that, and Apple is also discussing a similar deal with Foxconn.

That's the boring stuff. Here's why the news is potentially cool.

In 2013, Japan Display Inc unveiled a 12.1-inch 4K display meant for tablets. That display uses the low-temp polysilicon display tech Apple used for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. At the time, it was — like a lot of JDI's stuff — more proof of concept than coming to market.

We've heard time and again Apple has been working on a 12-inch or better iPad Pro tablet. Same display tech as their iPhone 6 and over 12-inches? Draw your own conclusions, here.

Late last year, JDI announced new tech that results in a display that's about 1.0mm thin. It also sports a new feature called WhiteMagic, which reduces the power consumptive qualities of a screen when too much whitespace is present. Power consumption was reduced by about 40%.

JDI also has some interesting flexible displays. The full HD flexible screens are pretty remarkable, but have yet to find a home with a major manufacturer. Apple has patented concepts that use flexible display tech. Again, draw your conclusions as you see fit.

Talks are, again, said to be nothing more than discussions. Still, JDI has a lot of tech on-hand that Apple is reportedly interested in implementing.

Source: Reuters