Apple's iPad (left) next to Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple and Samsung this week won awards for display technologies on their mobile devices.

Apple’s iPhone and iPad earned gold Display of the Year and Display Application of the Year awards from the Society for Information Display. Both devices received praise for their usage of in-plane switching technology, in which crystal molecules are oriented so their motion is parallel to the panel, instead of perpendicular to it. The result is a very wide viewing angle — up to 180 degrees — with brilliant color.

Apple’s iPhone 4 high pixel-density “Retina Display” is reportedly manufactured by LG Displays, which is also the main supplier for the iPad’s display.

Meanwhile, Samsung earned silver awards for displays on its Galaxy S smartphones, as well as its on-cell touch active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology. Samsung’s displays gained applause for using Super AMOLED technology, in which pixels emit their own light so the display does not require backlighting, to “deliver very high performance and exceptional display quality,” according to the society.

Also, Samsung’s on-cell touch technology integrates the touch sensor into the display itself, rather than putting the sensor on a separate piece of glass and laminating it on the display, which allows the display to be thinner and more responsive, the society said.

“[The award winners] demonstrate the remarkable contributions made by the display industry to broaden and enhance the lives of people,” said Bob Melcher, chairman of the SID Display of the Year Awards committee, in a press statement.

Display technologies take on an increasingly important role in the gadget industry as the newest mobile devices continue to shed physical keyboards and buttons in favor of touchscreens. Today, a smartphone’s display is as important as the software that runs beneath it.

Many display experts agree that Apple’s gadgets lead the game in the display industry thanks to their usage of in-plane switching, but Samsung’s AMOLED displays are not far from catching up.

“While OLED is still a relatively young display technology that has not yet been perfected to the performance levels of the very best mature LCDs [such as those on the iPhone and iPad], the Galaxy S is already an impressive display for an upcoming and rapidly evolving technology,” said Raymond Soneira, a display expert at DisplayMate, who has done independent testing on various displays.

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