Apple is delaying two advanced display upgrades that had been lined up for next year’s 20th-anniversary iPhone. Electronic Times reported the shift on September 22–23, 2026, citing industry sources. Color Filter on Encapsulation, or COE, and Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide Plus, or LTPO+, are not expected on that anniversary model. Four-sided bending is still on the plan.
The report ties the pause to two pressures at once. Materials and process maturity for COE and LTPO+ have not reached Apple’s bar. Memory prices keep lifting the phone bill of materials, a squeeze the Korean trade press calls chipflation. Adding expensive display steps on top of that would push costs further. Electronic Times does not publish a dollar BOM delta or a new COE start year of its own.
Four-sided bending stays on the anniversary phone
Four-sided bending curves the panel around all four edges. The goal is a near-borderless full-screen look. Sources told Electronic Times that piece still moves forward for the anniversary iPhone. COE and LTPO+ do not. No revised adoption date was given for either skipped technology.
COE folds the polarizer into the panel stack. That can raise optical efficiency and thin the module. LTPO+ replaces conventional LTPO driving transistors with oxide devices. The pitch is fewer excimer laser annealing steps and better power draw. Apple had been preparing both with Samsung Display and LG Display for the anniversary cycle.
Photo: Apple
Memory cost pressure sits beside the display delay
Industry sources named memory-price inflation as one brake. Phone DRAM and NAND have already forced OEM cost cuts elsewhere in the chain. The site tracked Samsung DRAM wafers rising while HBM share squeezes standard supply, and CXMT starting LPDDR6 mass production as brands hunt alternate bits. Electronic Times does not attach a new LPDDR contract price to today’s display story. It only frames memory inflation as a reason Apple is less willing to stack display cost now.
Shipment math sits in the same season. Counterpoint’s path pointed to a steep 2026 unit drop as memory costs bite. TrendForce later lifted 2026 phone production to 1.07 billion on early component buys. Neither shipment figure appears in the Electronic Times piece. The Korean report sticks to COE, LTPO+, four-sided bending, and supplier investment context.
Samsung Display and LG Display already spent on the line
Both Korean panel makers have been building capacity for higher-value iPhone glass. Electronic Times notes LG Display’s June 2025 package of KRW 1.26 trillion, including KRW 700 billion for Paju panel-line upgrades and KRW 560 billion for Vietnam module work. In April this year, LG Display also announced a further KRW 1.1 trillion facility investment and began ordering equipment. Samsung Display is described as strengthening capacity in parallel. The paper does not break out a Samsung Display KRW total for COE or LTPO+ alone.
Photo: Apple
What Electronic Times did not put in numbers
The September 22–23 coverage does not name a COE peak-nit target, a LTPO+ power-saving percentage, or an Apple purchase-order volume. It does not say which anniversary SKUs keep four-sided bending first. Separate UBI Research commentary, summarized by AppleInsider on September 22, has pointed CoE on Pro models as late as 2029. That timeline is UBI’s claim, not a figure Electronic Times printed as its own. Apple, Samsung Display, and LG Display have not issued public statements confirming the delay in the articles reviewed here.
For the panel chain, the near-term read is plain. Four-sided bending still offers a design step on the anniversary phone. Higher-value COE and LTPO+ panels wait. Memory inflation and process maturity are the two reasons Electronic Times’ sources put on the page.
Source: Electronic Times (ETNews), Sep. 22–23, 2026 (industry sources on Apple COE / LTPO+ timing; LG Display investment figures as reported)
