Before the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S) has even been announced, we’re starting to hear new information about Apple’s 6th generation iPhone. According to Japanese newspaper Nikkan (Google Translate link) Sharp has been contracted to manufacture the display in Apple’s ‘iPhone 6’. The big deal behind this is the technology that will be used in the next diplay. Nikkan states that Sharp will use a new poly-silicon liquid crystal display. It is still being developed, but this all new display is said to have operate at a much lower temperature as to use far less power than current LCDs. This next generation display will also allow for a thinner and lighter screen that should allow the already-slim iPhone to shave off a few more millimeters from its figure.

Sharp is said to have already begun preparing the necessary equipment to manufacture these displays at their Kameyama Plan No. 1, currently in primary use for building their LCDs.

Interesting to note:

In a “p-Si LCD,” the thin film transistor, or TFT, of the screen is made of polycristalline silicon. With this method, the display drivers can be mounted directly onto the glass substrate, shrinking the TFT section and allowing for a thinner LCD display.
[AppleInsider]

From Toshiba comes this diagram on the basic differences of a ‘p-Si LCD display’ versus the more traditional SOG style LCD currently in use.

During their last earnings call, Apple stated that they have invested a very large sum of money ($3.9 billion to be exact) in a new technology that they were not currently at liberty to disclose. They did however, state that this new technology was as big of a deal as when they invested and bought up most of the world’s supply of flash memory for the very first iPod nano. Many have speculated that this time, Apple is investing heavily in display technology. While it may be that Sharp is the company developing this technology, Apple could be involved behind the scenes, or maybe just as the bankroll behind the operation.