What you need to know
- A new report claims Apple is going to launch OLED iPads in 2024.
- There has been previous speculation of OLED iPads launching as early as this year.
- The report further claims OLED MacBook and iMac lines will follow.
A new report claims Apple will release new OLED iPad models for the first time in 2024.
According to The Elec:
Samsung Display has begun the development of OLED panels with a two-stack tandem structure where the panel has two emission layers (EML), TheElec has learned.The South Korean display maker is developing the panels to win the orders from Apple for its OLED iPads that are expected to launch in 2024, sources said.
The news report indicates that Samsung is working on panels that have double the brightness of current OLED panels and a quadrupled lifespan. The report cites wide expectations that Apple will launch an OLED iPad in 2024, and OLED MacBook and iMac models afterward.
The Elec further reiterated reports that an OLED iPad Air project was canceled by Apple last year. Both The Elec and DCSS's Ross Young stated that Apple had been planning a new OLED iPad for 2022 but had scrapped the project in favor of bringing mini-LED to the 11-inch M1 iPad Pro (2021) first.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported in March 2021 that 2022 could herald the first OLED iPad, from that report:
In a research note seen by iMore, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says there have been "recent misgivings" about the adoption of mini-LED in the supply chain. The news follows multiple reports from both Digitimes and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman stating a new iPad Pro is on the way soon, with production to begin in April. Kuo echoes this, saying a new mini-LED iPad will begin production "After mid-to-late April", suggesting it will start in just a few weeks, possibly as soon as the end of April. We know Kuo is referring to an iPad Pro, as elsewhere he states that Apple will reserve the mini-LED technology in iPad for the 'Pro' lineup, as well as new MacBooks coming this year, and a new MacBook Air he says will debut in 2022.
Multiple reports now indicate OLED iPad models are much further away than previously thought. Meantime, Apple is holding March event where it is expected to announce a new iPad Air, iPhone SE, and a new MacBook Pro with M2 Apple silicon.
