Mike Wuerthele
The now-discontinued Thunderbolt display appears to be Apple's last external monitor, as remarks made to the press suggest that the company is exiting that market segment.
The "hello again" release event on Thursday featured a new LG monitor, made in conjunction with Apple, using a single Thunderbolt 3 cable for video using multi-stream transport, and charging power for the connected MacBoook Pro. However, the monitor is not Apple branded in any way.
The LG UltraFine 5K Display measures 27 inches, and supports resolutions up to 5120 by 2880, in the P3 "wide color" gamut. Three USB 3.1 generation 2 type-C ports adorn the back, and the monitor includes stereo speakers, a microphone, and a camera — so the new display replaces all the functionality of the discontinued Apple display.
Apple buys its 4K and 5K panels for the iMac from LG.
Apple's remarks were made to The Verge's Nilay Patel, during the demonstration period after the event.
Good notes by @jsnell. I can add that Apple told me it's out of standalone display biz. https://t.co/6t1KqQODwD
— nilay patel (@reckless) October 28, 2016
It is not known what exactly was said to Patel at the event to make him come to this conclusion.
Rumors of an Apple-branded monitor with integrated GPU started circulating in the summer, with two disparate sources discussing the potential product.
To grab the lowest prices on Apple's new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, as well as popular monitors, see AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
82 Comments
And apparently the Mac Pro business.
I've suspected this for a long time now. Frankly I really doubt that Apple made money selling grossly over priced video monitors that had little applicability outside of Apples eco-System. Sadly I had at times wished that Apple would actually produce a video monitor that was well integrated with its laptops via TB but I just don't think they understand user needs anymore. With TB3/USB-C charging the monitor could have become the ideal "dock" for ones laptop, instead we got half implemented and grossly over priced solutions from Apple. Hopefully with market demand now from Apple and other USB-C based laptops we will see some competition to deliver reasonably priced an functionally complete docking monitors for these new laptop designs.
In the long run this is a good thing for Apple users.
Hopefully, the next iMac with TB3 can allow Target Display Mode again.
This is really unfortunate. That LG monitor has none of the design style that the current Apple displays have. I wouldn't want it sitting on my desk. Looks like iMacs for me.
Was it asking too much to integrate an ethernet port into this monitor like the prior Apple-branded TB monitor? Seriously. People that use these monitors obviously are going to be stationary. It's already an integrated dock with all the ports in back.
Stupid. The ethernet port was one thing I love with my current Apple TB display. Dumb move LG.