Apple may pay $1 billion to keep iPhone screen edge

Apple Inc. looks like it may put down close to $1 billion just to keep its devices at the leading edge.

Japan Display Inc., one of its key providers of screens, said Friday morning it would get up to $400 million from bailout partner Harvest Tech Investment Management Co. Nestled into its two-page stock exchange statement was the revelation that the funding includes $100 million already pledged by a customer.

That customer is Apple, according to a Bloomberg News story published in late June. Taiwan’s TPK Holding Co., another long-time iPhone component supplier, had been in talks to join a $1.1 billion rescue package for Japan Display but pulled out. That left the company needing to look elsewhere, and Apple stepped in to help fill the void.