William Gallagher
Samsung is now going to make an advanced tech OLED screen for the MacBook Pro by 2025, at least a year ahead of rivals — and sooner than recently predicted.
Gen 8 OLED screens are difficult to manufacture for large screens, but they offer lower power consumption and variable refresh rates, leading to better quality displays while preserving battery life. Creating the factory lines to produce the screens costs billions of dollars, and takes a long time, so companies have been hesitant to invest.
Specifically, in Mac 2023, it was reported that declining Mac sales meant screen manufacturers were concerned about how many screens Apple would order — and what it would pay for them.
Now according to The Elec, Samsung Display has begun investing in Gen 8 OLED, but certainly LG Display and possibly BOE will now follow. LG Display is delaying because of losses incurred in the move from LCD to OLED, and BOE is currently having difficulties making iPhone screens.
Samsung Display has reportedly claimed it will start production of Gen 8 OLED screens in two to three years time. It takes around a year for a manufacturing line to be installed and brought up to speed, but Samsung has bought the equipment to do this.
Its stated timescale means Samsung Display expects to be making Gen 8 OLED screens anywhere from mid-2025 to mid-2026. LG Display has not yet bought Gen 8 OLED manufacturing equipment, so The Elec says it will be at least a year behind Samsung Display.
Citing UBI Research's Choong Hoon Yi's comments at a Seoul seminar, The Elec says that despite any delay, LG Display is guaranteed to get orders from Apple. The UBI CEO says BOE is not guaranteed orders.
Currently, manufacturers are making Gen 6 OLED screens for devices such as the iPhone. Eighth generation screens are made in larger sheets than sixth generation ones, at 2200x2500mm instead of 1500x1850mm.
Displays as used in devices like the iPhone and MacBook Pro are then cut from those large sheets. More MacBook Pro-size displays can be made from a bigger initial sheet.
The report from The Elec runs counter to a recent claim that manufacturing difficulties with Gen 8 OLED screens mean Apple won't produce a MacBook Pro with one until 2027.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
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1 Comment
It's going to be interesting to see the impact of the Vision Pro on the laptop market over the coming years. Apple's going to continue to put the best possible screens in the MacBooks because they want to sell devices that can stand by themselves, but should the headsets become widely accepted will people start preferring the Mac Mini or Mac Studio?
I think Samsung will be able to turn a decent profit from the Gen 8 screens because they've made an investment in time, but the other two manufacturers might be second-guessing their demand estimates. It shows just how much impact Apple has; even with relatively small unit volumes (somewhere in the region of 15 million laptops per year) they're the biggest purchaser of high-end screens and thus drive the decision-making process.