Korean firms to benefit from iPhone 8 smartphone release: sources

South Korean electronics companies are to benefit from the launch of Apple Inc.'s next flagship iPhone 8 smartphones expected to be launched later this year as they are providers of major electronic parts, industry sources said Sunday.

Apple is forecast to release new iPhone models equipped with flexible organic light-emitting panels, augmented reality, a nearly bezel-free design and other state-of-the-art gadgets to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iconic mobile device.

"Samsung Electronics Co., Apple and other global smartphone manufacturers are likely to compete fiercely to improve hardware on the occasion of the launch of the iPhone 8," Kim Dong-won of KB Securities Co. said.

Among the major South Korean smartphone parts providers are Samsung Electronics Co., LG Innotech, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. and Samsung SDI Co.

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips, is known to provide dynamic random-access memory chips and NAND flash memory to Apple.

Samsung Display, which controls more than 95 percent of the global small and medium-sized OLED panel market, also sells OLED panels to Apple, which will be used for the first time in the new iPhone.

LG Innotech is the provider of dual cameras and circuit boards for Apple smartphones.

The company is, moreover, expected to provide Apple with 3-D sensing modules, which are used for AR functions.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. is the major provider of circuit boards, while Samsung SDI provides batteries and OLED parts. (Yonhap)