Mike Wuerthele
A new report said to be from Apple's supply chain claims that the OLED iPad Pro will be massively more expensive than the existing models, solely for advantages from the OLED screen.
Rumors about OLED in iPad have been churning for a long time. If the first rumors were to be believed, the product would have launched in 2022.
The latest rumor about the device, courtesy yeux1122 is that the product will cost a lot more than it does now. Specifically, the leaker is guessing that it will start at $1500 and will cost as much as $2000.
There's a lot to talk about with this rumor. Assuming that this applies to the entire iPad Pro line, this means that the 11-inch iPad will cost almost double it does now to start.
Even if just applies to the existing 12.9-inch model which is expected to grow to 13 inches with OLED technology, that's still a $400 premium from the existing $1199 starting price for the model.
It's also not clear about the $2000 price point. This is more than a fully-loaded 11-inch iPad Pro at present, but less than a maxed-out 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The leaker postulates that Apple will lean heavily on promoting the OLED technology as superior to the existing technology. That may be the case for the Liquid Retina display in the 11-inch iPad Pro, but it may not be for the XDR display in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
And, the manufacturing cost for OLED in the 12.9-inch iPad is expected to be similar, unless Apple has some additional technological enhancements planned that haven't been leaked yet.
The report also discusses the rumored use of the two-stack OLED display.
LG Display is reportedly preparing to use a new OLED material set known as "RDE" in the OLED panel used in the iPad Pro. The material change will apparently be included in models launching in 2024.
The OLED panels used in the current iPhone displays are known as a "single-stack product," which uses one light-emitting layer. The RDE material LG Display wants to use has a two-stack tandem structure, where two light-emitting layers are stacked on top of each other.
The benefit of the two-stack system is that it can produce the same brightness as a single-stack panel, but consumes less power in the process. Efficiency and lifespan are also anticipated for the panel.
The provenance of the rumor posted on the Never blog isn't clear, and is impossible to confirm.
Yeux1122 has a mixed track record as it pertains to Apple products. They have predicted things accurately in the past, mostly after other rumor generators have posted them first. However, they very notably completely botched a $1999 price guess for the Apple Vision Pro just a day before WWDC 2023.
We are expecting OLED in 2024, finally. There are no new revelations in Monday's rumor, other than the price point — which at its face, combined with the clear miss on pricing for Apple Vision Pro casts significant doubt on this aspect of the rumor.
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25 Comments
Surely this can't be true. In my opinion, the iPad Pro is already far too expensive. Adding a keyboard and matching the 256GB you get with a MacBook is £1748 compared to £1149 MacBook Air. That's £600 more and that doesn't even include an Apple Pencil to take advantage of the touchscreen features. Add that and it's £1887. Nearly 2 grand!
This is already in the crazy zone for a device that's still very limited by its software/OS. Most testers have struggled to use one as their main work machine. I would suggest Apple focuses on making iPad OS fit for purpose, rather than mincing about with the screen (which nobody seems to have much of a problem with).
Looking at tumbling Mac sales, one has to wonder if Apple really understands the current financial climate facing a very significant part of the world. They have, without doubt, developed their best-ever range of devices. Just about everything Apple offers now is best in class. But the prices are becoming insane. With the M series MacBooks they had the chance to finally get volume and move out of being an expensive niche choice. But as usual, they got greedy. The RAM and SSD pricing is crazy. I would love to see even smaller and cheaper M1 devices targeted at education to grow the installed user base. A smaller M1-based budget laptop to compete with the £500-£800 PCs. Get people onboard with Mac and they'll buy a proper one next time. This just seems so shortsighted.
The only reason why I laugh at the notion of an $2k iPad Pro is not because it's bad hardware. I just don't feel like iPad OS and iPad software is exceptional given the constraints the iPad places on workflows.
Over the years, I have really appreciated how Apple has pushed the industry forward on display technology. I remember a time when Apple was one of the few computer makers that used IPS screens. The standard in the windows PC world was crappy TN screens. It was almost impossible to get an IPS screen, because PC executives had decided that us dumb consumers would never pay for IPS. And then Apple pushed things forward with retina displays, etc etc.
It's all been great -- I've definitely appreciated it.
But I wonder if we are getting to a point where further improvements are of limited (not zero, but limited) value. Even before this rumor, I was not willing to pay for an iPad Pro. I've been holding out for a 13 inch iPad Air to replace my A10X-based 13 inch iPad Pro. It might be time for Apple to tap the brakes on using new display technology if doing so noticeably increases the price of the product.