LG Display Gets Apple ContractLG Display Gets Apple Contract

Electronics maker LG's Display group has reportedly signed a five-year contract to supply Apple with LCD panels.

LG, the world's second-largest maker of LCD screens used in flat-panel TVs, personal computers, and other devices, did not disclose the size of the deal, news agency Reuters said. However, the company said it had received a $500 million advance from Apple this month.

The South Korean company disclosed the deal in a filing with the Korea Financial Supervisory Commission on Monday, the The Associated Press said. Apple is expected to decide later how many panels LG will supply, the latter company said.

LG Display at the International Consumer Electronics Show this month introduced LCD TV panels that were free of the motion blur often seen when such displays show fast-moving images.

The LG TV's Trumotion 480Hz display panel has a 4-millisecond response time and an unprecedented 480 refresh rate per second, according to the company. As a result, the TV can show "crystal-clear" pictures of racing cars and other images that typically cause blurring.

Display quality is becoming increasingly important in higher-end laptops used in gaming and multimedia applications, such as video and photo editing and viewing. Apple has recently refreshed its MacBook line of notebooks with faster dual-core Intel processors.

In addition, Apple has updated its graphics hardware in the systems. At Macworld on Jan. 6, Apple introduced an upgraded 17-inch MacBook Pro with a Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor and a discrete Nvidia 9600M GT processor.