Apple’s upcoming OLED iPad Pro models are likely to be significantly more expensive than existing similarly sized OLED devices due to the costly new manufacturing processes involved, according to a new report from Korea.
Apple is expected next year to release new 11.1-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models with OLED instead of LCD screens, and its panel supply will account for the largest percentage of materials costs, according to Korea’s The Elec.
Rumor has it that Cupertino is in talks with Samsung and LG Display about the supply price of the panels, the specifications of which will require the use of production processes not previously combined for OLED panels of this size.
One of the new production processes is the use of a double two-stack structure, which has two emission layers, thus doubling the brightness and quadrupling the lifetime of the OLED display. All of Apple’s iPhones use a single-stack structure, and the company’s rationale behind requiring dual-stack panels for iPads is that tablets are primarily used for longer periods.
Another process is to use low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistors (TFT), for a more efficient backplane that is responsible for turning individual pixels on and off, and finally, a hybrid OLED structure that combines rigid OLED glass on the substrates with flexible OLED thin film encapsulation, resulting in an overall thinner panel.
According to The Elec, the supply price of OLED panels for existing 10-inch devices is about $100 to $150, while the cost of the processes required to make the 11.1-inch and 13-inch panels that Apple wants is closer to $270. and $350, respectively. .
As the publication notes, the company will likely pass on at least some of that hardware cost to the consumer, so we’ll end up with significantly higher retail prices. Currently, the 11-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina LED display starts at $799, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR mini-LED display starts at $1,099.
Today’s report adds that LG Display is developing 11.1-inch and 13-inch iPad OLED panels, while Samsung is only working on the 11.1-inch model. Samsung may, of course, eventually develop both types depending on production requirements.
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