Apple and LG Sign Five-Year Deal for Displays

[MacRumors]

According to a regulatory filing made today by LG, the display manufacturer has signed a five-year deal to provide LCD panels to Apple, a deal that includes an upfront payment by Apple of $500 million. Reuters cites analyst comments that LG currently supplies displays for 70% of Apple's computer products, so the new deal suggests a strengthening of the existing relationship that should bring long-term price and supply stability.

"Although LG Display already had a relationship with Apple, the deal's duration and the size of the advance show that the two companies are involved in a long-term, strategic alliance," said Son Young-jun, a spokesman for LG Display.

The deal appears similar to ones announced in November 2005 in which Apple agreed to pay $1.25 billion upfront to a number of flash memory manufacturers as part of long-term supply agreements.

Article Link: Apple and LG Sign Five-Year Deal for Displays

[Dejavu]

About time. Apple's Cinema Displays are OLD! It's been, what, two years since the last price adjustment for their 30" displays!?!@!

[Chaszmyr]

Back when Apple signed the deals to secure NAND memory, I thought it was brilliant. I'm less sure about this deal. It seems like there are new display technologies on the horizon that may jeopardize this investment in the second half of the term (OLED, etc). If a new display technology comes along and is not adopted by LG, Apple will be out a good chunk of money.

[plumbingandtech]

Does samsung also make the glass for the iphones?

Or is that a different company?

Is so, apple is securing LCDs in much the same way they secured RAM before the iphone onslaught.

(think tablet size screens too.)

BUT THE PREEEEE!!!!!

This will never stop the PREEEE! from eating apple's iLunch!!!!!!

[kjs862]

Good news I think, lets hope we get to see some new cinema displays soon. My 30 inches is looking so dated and the screen just doesn't look as crisp as my alu imac's screen. The 30 inches looks far less crip and seems grainy (anti-glare coating??)

[edesignuk]

Yikes. $500m up front.

Let's hope LG are as good of a partner as Intel have proven to be.

[talkingfuture]

9to5mac.com have pointed out the fact that LG have 3d displays. I'd love to see Apple do something with those.

http://www.9to5mac.com/LG-Apple-displays

By coincidence I picked the 3d display and corresponding glasses as one of my CES highlights on a blog article. I think it will be quite big in the next couple of years.

It would be nice to see Apple at the forefront of this action.

[SFStateStudent]

Drop in the bucket for Apple; we should be seeing immediate benefits of this five-year relationship. Now I'm in the market to replace my 24" ACD...

[fendol]

$500 million up front, yeah that's a lot of money for our standards, but these are billion dollar companies. And at least they seem to pay upfront, not like other companies that drag down the payments

[wahit]

Ah cool! I guess.......

[IJ Reilly]

This is reminiscent of their big investment in Samsung a number of years ago.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-229154.html

I wonder what became of that?

[Tallest Skil]

Reading what 9to5 has to say about this, I see that they mention LG's 3D displays.

FINALLY a use for the Quadro FX 4600, 5600, and future 5800 in the Mac Pro!

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by Dejavu

About time. Apple's Cinema Displays are OLD! It's been, what, two years since the last price adjustment for their 30" displays!?!@!

They were buying displays from LG yesterday and they'll be buying more tomorrow. Nothing has really changed.

This has nothing to do with what kind of enclosures they put the panels in or how they price them.

In other words, this is a nice little news tid-bit that means nothing for you or me.

[OCraised]

A thought. Usually when a company pays a huge amount up front it is because they want them to make something unique.

Otherwise they would just put in an order for a lot of units and get a discounted price.

This could be great.

[zombitronic]

This is the only line from the 9to5 article that I care about:

Various applications & usages without glasses

[IJ Reilly]

Originally Posted by OCraised

A thought. Usually when a company pays a huge amount up front it is because they want them to make something unique.

Otherwise they would just put in an order for a lot of units and get a discounted price.

This could be great.

Or because they want to lock up a substantial portion of LG's manufacturing capacity in advance. In the last earnings conference call, Apple was asked how they were planning on using their huge cash reserves. They declined to anwer specifically, but Steve did say "cash is king." Especially these days, that's really true.

[Jpoon]

Meh, I don't think it's good to tie yourself to one company. That's asking for something to go wrong.

*edit* I realize the irony of this statement on a site devoted to supporting one Personal Computer.

[talkingfuture]

Originally Posted by IJ Reilly

Or because they want to lock up a substantial portion of LG's manufacturing capacity in advance. In the last earnings conference call, Apple was asked how they were planning on using their huge cash reserves. They declined to anwer specifically, but Steve did say "cash is king." Especially these days, that's really true.

This is one of the advantages of Apples massive cash reserve. Other firms will be envious in the current economy.

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by Dejavu

About time. Apple's Cinema Displays are OLD! It's been, what, two years since the last price adjustment for their 30" displays!?!@!

Apple's ACDs being old has nothing to do with price adjustments. Ok Apple's ACDs are old ... but if they adjust the price does that suddenly make them new?

Considering my last MacBook had an LG screen and it was reported that the LG was the worst of the three panels being put into the MB, I am not happy about that. LG, in my opinion is no longer synonymous with quality. I've seen their TVs next to Vizios and the likes and have yet to be impressed. At this point I would hope that they would have gone with an AU relationship or something that doesn't scream well-known but seems to be of higher quality.

Between the question of quality and the fact that LG is guilty of price fixing, I question Apple's business decision.

[dal20402]

One thing that is a likely positive of this development is that, in the high-end space, LG has gone with H-IPS over S-PVA.

Therefore future Cinema Displays are somewhat more likely to remain IPS as a result of this deal.

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by dal20402

One thing that is a likely positive of this development is that, in the high-end space, LG has gone with H-IPS over S-PVA.

Therefore future Cinema Displays are somewhat more likely to remain IPS as a result of this deal.

That is a positive, but I am still concerned, you can actually get a real crappy IPS display. It's like you can get a good sony or a bad sony. Apple doesn't appear to be too overly concerned with building their products with quality screens these days. Once the reflection moves away from the buyer's faces they tend to figure out their shiny new toy isn't all that shiny. I've been victim of this. Thank goodness I have my 30" already!

[bruinsrme]

Originally Posted by Jpoon

Meh, I don't think it's good to tie yourself to one company. That's asking for something to go wrong.

*edit* I realize the irony of this statement on a site devoted to supporting one Personal Computer.

LG is one of the largest, if not the largest glass manufacturer. Ask pioneer who is making ther glass

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by Chaszmyr

Back when Apple signed the deals to secure NAND memory, I thought it was brilliant. I'm less sure about this deal. It seems like there are new display technologies on the horizon that may jeopardize this investment in the second half of the term (OLED, etc). If a new display technology comes along and is not adopted by LG, Apple will be out a good chunk of money.

You don't invest $500 Million without certain requirements in a contract.

[NYYankees]

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/28...-cash-into-it/

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/0...dpa-yes-please

hmm, I think Apple may indeed be incorporating a 3.5 in AMOLED screen in the next iPhone release come June 2009. LG does have experience with AMOLED screens, and have already put them on some phones.

[carfac]

Originally Posted by Jpoon

I don't think it's good to tie yourself to one company. That's asking for something to go wrong...

Yeah, possibly. But the cost savings can be substantial, too.


I wonder if LG is competent enough to make a 1660 px 15.4" display... that is about the only thing that keeps me from a Macbook Pro... of course, even if they made one, Jobs would just think it was "too much hurt" and not use it. Sometimes Jobs is st incompetent... seems to be more and more so these days.