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Japan Display Inc.(株式会社ジャパンディスプレイ, Kabushiki-gaisha Japan Disupurei), commonly called by its abbreviated name, JDI, is the Japanese display technology joint venture formed by the merger of the small and medium-sized liquid crystal display businesses of Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi.
On August 31, 2011, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi agreed to a merger of their respective small-to-medium-sized LCD businesses, supported by an investment of two hundred billion yen from INCJ. Soon after, INCJ and Panasonic also began talks on the acquisition of one of Panasonic"s factories.
JDI had accumulated consecutive losses since its IPO, a restructuring plan was announced in 2017, including closing down a production line in Japan and layoffs of approximately a third of its workforce.
A newly-created entity INCJ, Ltd. had become the largest shareholder of JDI with 25,29 % of total shares since September 21, 2018 as a result of a corporate split of the old INCJ.
On June 12, 2019, JDI disclosed that major changes are to be implemented due to sluggish sales in the Mobile Business Division. It announced one plant would be closed and another has suspended operation. A major reduction of the workforce was also planned.Apple, boosting the stock price of JDI by 32 percent at the time.
Due to the financial trouble caused by its late decision to manufacture OLED displays and the loan from Apple, the company"s OLED affiliate, JOLED, has not yet been able to compete with other manufacturers, whilst more than half of JDI"s revenue still came from the shrinking IPS LCD panel sales to Apple.
In February 2020, Ichigo Asset management, a multinational private investment fund, gained control of JDI in exchange for US$715 million of investment. In turn, the memorandum signed with Suwa a year before was terminated.
In April 2020, in accordance with the talks held in December, JDI began to sell LCD production equipment valued at US$200 million to Apple, with plans to sell the real estate of the Hakusan plant to Sharp. This will allow JDI to focus on its remaining product demand and factories. The sales have been completed by October.
In July 2020, the CEO of JDI revealed the company"s plan to start mass production of OLED display panels for smartphones "as early as 2022" with a novel manufacturing technology, adding that it would require new funding.
JDI has produced active-matrix displays driven by TFTs based on a In-Plane-Switching technology developed by Hitachi also has been used. The company has developed an improvement for darker black pixels (true-black appearance), called "IPS-NEO", which reduces the light shining through from the backlighting.
Its "Pixel Eyes" technology incorporates the touch function into the LCD panel itself; combined with the company"s transparent display technology, a transparent fingerprint reader that could be featured in smartphones was announced in 2018.
For reflective LCDs without backlighting, JDI has developed an addressing technique using a thin-film memory device SRAM in addition to the conventional TFT for each pixel, so that a still image can be stored consuming a low amount of energy.
TOKYO -- Japan Display will sell its China-based subsidiary Suzhou JDI Electronics to a local buyer, the money-losing Japanese panel maker said Friday, as it continues to shed assets in a sweeping overhaul.
Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co. will buy all of Suzhou JDI Electronics for 20.5 billion yen ($140 million) in a transaction to be completed between January and March 2023.
Japan Display Inc. is a Japanese company that manufactures and supplies LCD panels for smartphones, tablets, automotive applications and laptops. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. As of March 2016, the company had a market capitalization of US$2.4 billion.
Japan Display Inc."s products are used in a variety of electronic devices including smartphones, tablets, automotive applications and laptops. The company"s panels are used by major electronics manufacturers such as Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., HTC Corporation and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) is a leading display panel manufacturer based in Tokyo, Japan. The company was formed in 2011 as a joint venture between Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba. JDI supplies LCD panels to some of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, including Apple, LG and Samsung.
JDI’s cutting-edge technology has made it one of the leaders in the global display market. The company’s products are used in a wide range of devices, from smartphones and tablets to TVs and laptops. JDI has a strong R&D team that is constantly developing new display technologies. The company is publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and had a revenue of US$5.6 billion in 2018.
Japan Display Inc. is a leading display panel manufacturer that designs, develops, and manufactures cutting-edge display panels and systems for smartphones, tablets, notebooks, automotive applications, digital cameras, camcorders and digital signage. The company has over 8,000 employees and operates 13 factories in 9 countries around the world.
Japan Display Inc. offers a wide range of products and services that are designed to meet the needs of its customers. The company’s product portfolio includes: LCD panels, OLED panels, touch panels, flexible displays and integrated modules. Japan Display Inc. also provides a variety of value-added services such as: design support, engineering support, production support and after-sales service. The company’s products are used in a variety of market segments including consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and medical. Japan Display Inc.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) is a leading display manufacturer that designs, develops, and manufactures LCDs for smartphones, tablets, automotive applications, and other consumer electronics. The company went public in 2010 and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. JDI reported a net loss of ¥23.4 billion ($205 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, compared to a net profit of ¥10.3 billion in the previous fiscal year. This was primarily due to lower sales of LCD panels for smartphones and increased competition from Chinese manufacturers.
Looking at Japan Display"s financial performance over the past few years, it"s clear that the company has been struggling to maintain profitability. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, JDI reported a net loss of ¥23.4 billion ($205 million), compared to a net profit of ¥10.
One of the biggest challenges that Japan Display Inc. (JDI) is facing is the competition from South Korean and Chinese display manufacturers. JDI has been losing market share to these companies in recent years, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for JDI to compete on price. Additionally, JDI is also facing challenges from new technologies such as OLED and quantum dot displays. While JDI has developed its own OLED technology, it has yet to commercialize it on a large scale. And while quantum dot displays are not yet widely used in smartphones, they are expected to gain popularity in the coming years.
Another challenge for JDI is its reliance on Apple Inc. for a significant portion of its revenue. In 2017, Apple accounted for approximately 60% of JDI’s revenue.
Japan’s JDI beat out rivals such as LG Display to serve as the sole supplier of the initial batch of LCD panels for Apple’s latest version of its iPhone SE smartphones due out next month, according to industry sources on April 27. Sharp – which was acquired by Taiwan’s Foxconn – will later on add to the supplies, the sources said.
The iPhone SE is a budget phone fitted with a 4.7-inch LCD panel, which was slightly bigger than the 4-inch panels in the original SE iPhones that had been once again supplied by JDI and Sharp.
JDI, meanwhile, has been getting a helping hand from Apple as it faces some tough times. It is now looking to sell off assets such as a factory in Hakusan area. Apple will be buying parts of this facility. “Apple is virtually keeping JDI stay afloat,” said one industry source, speculating that the decision to partner for the latest SE phones may be a part of such plans.
At the same time, they noted that Apple does needs a stable supply of LCD panels. In 2019, JDI supplied 66.6 million LCD panels for the iPhone, while Sharp supplied 51.6 million and LG Display 39.1 million.
With the deal with Apple out of reach, LG Display will have to focus on selling more OLED panels for the iPhone. This year, the LG affiliate is expected to account for up to 15% of the iPhone’s OLED panel supply, up from 10% in 2019.
Based on Apple’s projections for shipping up to 90 million OLED-fitted iPhones in the latter half of this year, LG Display would be supplying around 30 million LCD and OLED panels to the US-based smartphone maker. That would be around 30% smaller than the volume in 2019.
Back in 2014-2015, Japan Display (JDI) was considered to be Apple"s major smartphone display supplier. At that time, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus were bringing larger-sized LCD screens to iPhone users. The original 3.5-inch display found on the first iPhone models rose to 4-inches with the iPhone 5 and to 4.7-inches on the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 Plus carries a screen size of 5.5-inches and those sizes remained the same until 2017"s iPhone X weighed in with a 5.8-inch OLED screen.
The iPhone X was the beginning of the end of Japan Display"s importance to the iPhone since the supplier was late to embrace OLED. JDI borrowed $1.5 billion from
Apple to build a new LCD plant. With smartphone manufacturers-including Apple-turning away from LCD, JDI"s new factory was running at only 50% of capacity. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, on Friday Japan Display announced that it will sell a smartphone display factory and the land it sits on to Sharp for 41.2 billion yen (the equivalent of $386 million). The Hakusan LCD factory along with equipment that will be sold to a customer believed to be Apple, will bring Japan Display $668 million while at the same time cutting excess capacity that has negatively impacted its earnings. This specific factory has been idle since 2019.
The facility was supposed to have been sold by the end of this past March but the global pandemic caused the plans to change. When the factory was built, Apple covered most of the 170 billion yen cost ($1.61 billion USD) of the facility. Production started in late 2016 with up to seven million smartphone panels manufactured each month. As time went on, the number of panels churned out by the factory declined on a monthly basis. Japan Display will use the funds it receives from the sale of the plant to pay back Apple for the prepayment it made toward the facility.
Sharp, which is owned by iPhone assembler Foxconn, will rent the necessary equipment from Apple that will allow it to produce LCD displays for older iPhone models. Sharp also expects to use the facility for developing and producing the next generation of displays including microLED screens which use millions of tiny light-emitting-diodes to produce a sharp display (no pun intended). Sharp does plan to spin-off its LCD panel business in October.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) is a leading global manufacturer of small- and medium-sized display panels. It develops, designs and manufactures displays that provide high resolution, low power consumption and an ultra-thin structure. The company‘s major customers include leading consumer electronics manufacturers and other well-known global companies. In Europe the focus is set on the automotive industry. JDI was formed through the consolidation of the display panel businesses of Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba and commenced operations on April 1, 2012.
JDI will exhibit the new 20.8-Inch Rælclear at CES 2023 in Las Vegas from January 5th to the 8th, 2023. Visitors will be able to envision a new future of design combining artificial intelligence and the technology of Rælclear.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) has developed the world’s first flexible tactile sensor that enables high-precision measurement over a wide area using a matrix of LTPS TFTs (lowtemperature polysilicon thin-film transistors).
Highly accurate tactile measurement is required for the development of a number of new technologies and products, as well as for advanced sports and medical research. JDI’s flexible tactile sensor is suitable for a wide range of applications, such as measuring the grip strength of a robot grasping an object or the pressure distribution on the sole...
In response to strong customer demand, Japan Display Inc. (JDI) has further developed its breakthrough transparent Rælclear display technology and expects to begin mass production of a new 20.8-inch Rælclear display with 2X brightness in the fall of 2023.
Samsung Display has sold its LCD factory in China to Chinese display maker CSOT, a company under TCL group, to further cut down its LCD capacity, which goes in line with Samsung’s plan to quit LCD business. By ending its LCD panel production, Samsung aims to expand its development in QD displays and OLED displays. The Korean giant has also reportedly t...
Japan Display (JDI) is going to sell its LCD plant in Hakusan, Japan, to Sharp and Apple, so that the Japanese display maker can pay off its debt to Apple. The total transfer price is estimated to be JPY 71 billion (US$ 672 million).
The plant will be transferred to Sharp, who is also a display supplier of Apple, by the end of September. With the transaction, Sharp will take over most of the debt of JDI which JDI borrowed from Apple when building the plant. The plant was originally built for supplying LCD panels for iPhone. But S...
Sharp, one of the panel providers of Apple, is reportedly developing small size Micro LED displays and will mass produce the products by 2023 for eye-wear smart devices, reported Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun.
According to the report, Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sharp, has developed Micro LED prototypes including a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI. The company deploys its proprietary color conversion technology to achieve full color display and aims to mass produce the products in 2023 to 2024 for A...
The investigation showed that JDI recorded fictitious inventory of JPY 10 billion (US$92.86 million) in total since the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. The investigation also...
Japan Display (JDI) announced the development of a Micro LED display. The prototype Micro LED display will be presented at “FINTECH JAPAN 2019,” which is taking place in Makuhari Messe from December 4 to 6, 2019. The 1.6-inch Micro LED display of JDI is based on LTPS backplane developed by the company and Micro LED chips from glō, a Micro LED technology provider. The display achieves a resolution of 265 ppi with a pixel number of 300*300. (Image: JDI) JDI also noted that the Micro LED display has a wide viewin...
Mini LED backlight solution seems to be a “must have” technology for all the panel exhibitors at this year’s Display Week. Despite that adopting Mini LED backlight to consumer electronic products is rather difficult due to high production cost; panel makers still proactively demonstrated related products. Therefore, Mini LED backlight might not be a flash in the pan. LEDinside noticed that almost every display maker participated in Display Week disclosed the focus on automotive display incorporating LCD panel and Mini LED backlight. The solut...
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) has been negotiating with Chinese companies and investors to receive financial supports of JPY 50 billion (US$ 440.65 million), reported NHK. The potential investors include mobile component producer Ofilm, automotive component manufacturer Minth Group and the Silk Road Fund.
With the support, the Chinese investors will hold 33 percent or more of the share of JDI, suppressing the current major shareholder INCJ, who owns 25.29 percent of the share. In addition to the investment, the Chinese investors were also reportedly offering a ...
LEDinside forecasts that the development of Mini LED will accelerate in 2019 and 2020 and its market value will reach US$ 1699 million by 2022. Several industry players including San’an, HC Semitek, Epistar, NationStar, Harvatek, and Macroblock have reported their progress of Mini LED development. Meanwhile, panel producers such as AUO, BOE, Innolux and JDI have also unveiled applications adopting Mini LED technology.
During Display Week 2018, many big giants have been simultaneously releasing Mini LED backlight products. LEDinside found those Mini LED panels majorly adopt direct-type local dimming and support HDR mode, making the vivid contract ratio, which can compete with OLED panel.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) announced that it has developed a transparent glass-based capacitive fingerprint sensor by applying the company"s capacitive multi-touch technology used in its other liquid crystal displays (LCDs). JDI plans to start commercial shipments within its 2018 fiscal year, which ends March of 2019.
Appearing to be strapped for cash, smartphone screen manufacturer Japan Display (JDI) is currently in talks with Chinese panel makers, including BOE, Tianma, and CSOT, over an investment more than USD 1.8 billion. The Japanese company hopes to seal the deal by the end of March 2018, reported Kyodo News.
The Japanese digital panel giant Japan Display Inc. (JDI) had a struggle revamping its liquid crystal display (LCD) panel business. To make the recovery happen, JDI planned to accept fundings from outside investors. Not only that, JDI will restructure LCD panel production sites, and lay off employees at a large scale, slashing about 4,000 jobs, according to Nikkei"s report on August 8.
It has been spreading like crazy that in 2H17 three iPhone models- the high-end iPhone 8 featuring an OLED display, iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus that continue to use LCD displays- will hit the shelves. Latest sources leaked Apple might increase OLED display use in its products and all the three new iPhones to roll out in 2018 are likely to sport OLED displays. That possibly implies orders Apple places with LCD display providers Sharp and Japan Display Inc. (JDI) would plummet. It will be much of a shock to JDI which earns over 50% of its revenue from Apple’s phone screen demand.
Sumitomo Chemical, the Japan-based chemical giant, is reported to have successfully developed new technologies to facilitate more cost efficient OLED display manufacture. According to Nikkei, the new materials and equipment the company introduced could possibly bring down the current production cost of OLED panels by 50%, which is able to further reduce the selling prices of OLED TVs and expand the penetration of OLED products.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI) announced the commencement of mass production at its newly-constructed low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD line in its Hakusan Plant, located in Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. JDI had been preparing for mass production since Dec. 1, and commenced mass production on Dec. 23.
Small to mid-sized display manufacturer Japan Display Inc. (JDI) third quarter financial results were in the red, due to lower demands than expected from Chinese clients and its largest client Apple, reported Chinese-language media Money DJ.
LCD display manufacturer Japan Display Inc. (JDI) developed an ultra-thin bezel LCD that is merely millimeters thick, which could greatly increase smartphone makers design flexibility, reported Nikkei.
Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu told The Nikkei and other reporters that it intended to collaborate with Japan Display Inc. (JDI) in the development of OLED displays to catch up with Korean competitors Samsung.
Japan Display Inc. (JDI), a manufactuerr of small to mid-sized LCD displays issued a statement on Saturday refuting claims made by Nikkeiand other media that it was seeking financial support from INCJ.
Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (“INCJ”), Japan Display Inc. (“JDI”), Sony Corporation (“Sony”), and Panasonic Corporation (“Panasonic”) announced hat they have executed a definitive agreement to establish a new company, JOLED Inc. (“JOLED”), to integrate Sony and Panasonic’s R&D functions for organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) display panels. Through this collaboration, the companies aim to accelerate the development and early commercialization of OLED display panels. JOLED is scheduled to be launched in January 2015, subject to receipt of any necessary approvals.
The Tokyo-based LCD specialist expects its favored display technology to become the standard for VR because it can achieve higher resolution than OLED while keeping costs reasonable. That advantage is imperceptible in mobile devices but becomes critical in the more demanding VR scenario.
The Tokyo-based LCD specialist expects its favored display technology to become the standard for VR because it can achieve higher resolution than OLED while keeping costs reasonable. That advantage is imperceptible in mobile devices but becomes critical in the more demanding VR scenario.
Many of the first wave of headsets released five years ago used OLED screens -- or organic light-emitting diodes, the same as used across most flagship phones today -- for their responsiveness to fast-moving action, a common feature of gaming experiences. But major players such as HTC Corp. and Facebook have moved to LCDs for their latest products, betting on the more economical standard to improve the user experience and immersion. Industry researchers at Omdia saw LCD adoption rise in 2020 and forecast the technology will dominate the category over the next five years.
“It’s hard to find a VR headset maker who doesn’t have a relationship with us," JDI’s VR chief Takeshi Harayama said in an interview. At the company’s last earnings call in May, Chief Executive Officer Scott Callon said he expects revenue from gaming-oriented VR headsets to pick up from the second half of next fiscal year.
One important holdout remains: Sony Group Corp. plans to use Samsung Display Co. OLED panels in its next-generation PlayStation VR goggles, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese console giant sold more than 5 million units of the original PS VR, launched in 2016, and is aiming to release the successor in the holiday period next year, the people said, asking not to be named discussing internal plans.
To grab a bigger share of the market, JDI is working to convince VR companies it can solve two of their biggest hurdles: display quality and cost. Because VR goggles place the screen so much closer to the human eye, they require higher resolution and clarity than mobile screens, achieved by packing pixels closer together. JDI is capable of producing displays with 1,200 pixels per inch, more than double the typical density of top-tier phone panels, according to its chief VR headset engineer, Yoshihiro Watanabe.
The threshold for a high-quality VR experience is to have a display with at least 1,000 pixels per inch, Watanabe said, adding that JDI is one of the few display makers -- if not the only -- that can mass-produce such panels at a reasonable production yield.
JDI was created in 2012 by the combination of the display-making units of Sony, Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp., with much of its revenue since then coming from mobile handsets, especially iPhones. More than half of its total sales used to come from the Apple business, but the iPhone maker’s adoption of OLED technology left the company reeling.
Unable to develop its own OLED panels to a competitive level with leader Samsung Display, JDI has seen its revenue from phones drop from 838 billion yen ($7.7 billion) in the year ended March 2016 to an expected 81 billion yen this fiscal year. The firm sold the factory it had used mainly to produce panels for Apple to Sharp Corp. last year.
Major smartphone makers universally adopted OLED for their premium models in part because of the broader set of design options it offered. Flexible OLED panels could be curved, as with the banana-like LG G Flex, rolled or folded, as with the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X.
“When it comes to VR, the quality of picture the panel produces will be the most important because the headset doesn’t really need other features such as flexibility and energy efficiency," said Omdia research manager Hiroshi Hayase.
It’s difficult to say that LCD is in all cases superior to OLED for VR, Hayase said, because OLED offers better contrast in addition to faster response times. The key for JDI will be to establish a solid footing in the industry by addressing customer needs that other suppliers would turn down owing to the small market size, he added. JDI has experience of doing that from its business supplying display panels for digital cameras.
While JDI doesn’t disclose particular customers, the company expects revenue from non-mobile businesses, which includes VR headsets, to grow 25% to 70 billion yen in the current fiscal year.
“I wouldn’t say the market will be rosy in two to three years, but the growth rate is good enough for us to call it a big business for us," JDI’s Watanabe said. “Other makers may try to come in when the market is finally big enough, but by that time we expect to have built strong ties with customers and accumulated the technological know-how to hold our position."
Japan Display Inc (JDI), the struggling supplier of screens to Apple, says it is in talks with customers on possible joint investments in next-generation organic light-emitting diode displays. Shares of JDI posted their biggest gain in 19 months.
JDI is developing a technology that will deliver OLED screens that are sharper, less power hungry and are easier to produce, the company"s Chief Executive Officer Minoru Kikuoka said in an interview. While JDI is a few technical milestones short of deciding whether to push ahead, it has already started talks with some customers on investing in the new technology, Kikuoka said, declining to name specific companies.
The launch of Apple"s first OLED iPhone in 2017 was seen as the beginning of the end for the long reign of liquid crystal displays - a dire threat for JDI because that is its core business. The company relies on Apple for about 60% of its revenue was falling behind in technology and lacked the funds needed to ramp up production. But forecasts of LCD"s demise missed the mark, giving JDI the breathing room to develop a smaller OLED for use in the Apple Watch. It is now considering entry into the smartphone market, a move which will pit it against Samsung Electronics Co. and Chinese manufacturers.
The shares surged as much as 37.5% to 66 yen, the biggest intraday gain since December 2018. They were at 62 yen at the midday break in Tokyo. Thursday morning"s gains helped recoup some of the 40% in market value JDI had shed this year.
JDI intends to use a different manufacturing technology than the evaporation method used by rivals, Kikuoka said. Whether to advance to mass production will depend on its ability to raise output yields and customer needs at the time. He estimated that the company could commence full-scale manufacturing in Japan or abroad as early as 2022.
Constituted from the remains of numerous ailing Japanese display makers in 2012, JDI mistimed large investments in LCD capacity and found itself struggling against abler competition from South Korean and Chinese rivals. Six straight years of losses have sent it in search of a capital infusion from overseas, but the list of potential suitors continued to dwindle. When Kikuoka took the helm in September, the company had just reached a new low, warning that if it"s not able to raise fresh capital it may face difficulties continuing its business.
Since then, it secured a lifeline that included about 50 billion yen ($466 million) raised from Ichigo Trust and a refinancing scheme by Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a state-owned fund that remains JDI"s largest shareholders. Apple has also pitched in by buying some of its manufacturing equipment.
While the threat of insolvency has lifted, the company is still struggling to return to profit. It booked a 38.5 billion yen operating loss in the year ended March, after sales plunged 21%. JDI forecast sales will decline as much as 20% this fiscal year, citing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and slump in demand for screens in smartphones and cars.
The industry"s looming shift to OLED is another factor weighing on its shares, which trade at less than a tenth the level when it listed in 2014. While Apple"s 2019 phone lineup included one LCD model and another was added in the first half of this year, the expectations are building that this year will mark a complete shift to OLED. Still, Kikuoka says the alarm is unwarranted.
Japan Display (JDI) is a small/medium display maker, formed in September 2011 by the merger of Sony"s, Toshiba"s and Hitachi"s display businesses and funded by Japan"s government fund Innovation Network Corporation (INCJ), which holds 70% of the shares.
JDI considers OLEDs to be the core technology of the next generation small size and medium size displays, and in 2017 the company announced that it is going to perform a "last-chance" restructuring to focus on OLEDs as there is "no future for the smartphone panel business without OLED".
In August 2014 JDI, together with Sony, Panasonic and INCJ, launched JOLED to develop and produce printed OLED panels. In December 2016 JDI raised $635 million from INCJ to increase its stake at JOLED, and in 2020 the company raised $935 million from Ichigo. In October 2019 Japan Display announced it has started to produce OLED displays - likely indeed this is low volume production for Apple"s wearables.