Apple's 2024 iPadPro with OLED Screen Shipping Target and Industry Updates
TapTechNews May 27th news, according to DigiTimes, Apple's first 2024 iPadPro tablet with an OLED screen has a shipping target of more than 9 million units, which is particularly eye-catching against the background of the sluggish overall IT equipment market.
Previously, the delay in the release of the OLED iPadPro had once affected market expectations. However, according to the latest DigiTimes report, Apple and South Korean display manufacturers are maintaining their original shipping plans. Market research company Omdia predicts that the tablet OLED panel shipments will reach 12.1 million pieces in 2024, of which hybrid OLED panels will account for 8.12 million pieces (61.7%). Since the OLED iPadPro is the first tablet to adopt a hybrid OLED, in Omdia's prediction, a large part of the hybrid OLED panel shipments will come from the new iPadPro.
Although some market research institutions predict that the shipping volume of the 2024 OLED iPadPro will be between 4.5 million and 5 million units, Korean industry sources revealed that companies such as Apple, LG Display (LGD), and Samsung Display (SDC) are adhering to their original shipping targets for finished iPadPro devices and panels. The OLED panel shipping target of LGD is reportedly 5 million pieces, while the target of SDC is more than 4 million pieces.
It is reported that Apple's OLED iPadPro offers two screen sizes, 11 inches and 13 inches. LGD will supply for both sizes, while SDC only provides 11-inch OLED panels. The new iPadPro adopts a double-stack tandem structure OLED panel, which theoretically can double the brightness and quadruple the service life compared to a single-stack structure.
In addition, in order to increase its OLED panel production capacity for iPads, it is reported that Samsung Display is expanding its A3 production line from a single production line to a double production line. The A3 production line was originally mainly used to produce single-stack structure OLED panels and was mainly used to manufacture OLED displays for Apple's iPhone and Samsung Galaxy series smartphones. If Samsung wants to produce double-stack tandem structure panels on the A3 production line, corresponding process upgrades are required.
Compared with that, LGD announced an investment plan with a total investment amount of 3.3 trillion won (TapTechNews note: currently about 17.523 billion yuan) in 2021 and established the E6-4 production line accordingly. This production line was designed from the beginning to produce double-stack tandem structure OLED panels. Recently, LGD also hinted at an additional investment of 103.8 billion won for the E6-4 production line through a paid capital increase, increasing the total investment amount of the production line to about 3.4 trillion won.