Rumor: Display production for 11-inch OLED iPad Pro begins in days

Among the continuing rumors of new iPad Pro models with higher-quality OLED screens, it had been reported that production would begin in February 2024. Now The Elec says that Samsung begins manufacturing this week — and that LG has started within the last few days.

Citing industry sources, The Elec says that LG has recently begun work on what it reports as the 1-type TFT for a 13-inch OLED iPad. LG is now also to produce the thin film transistor element of an OLED screen for an 11-inch iPad.

Samsung reportedly worked on the development of the 13-inch iPad Pro screen, but will solely manufacture the 11-inch model. LG is producing both, and between them The Elec says Apple has cut its overall order from 10 million to 8 million units.

As this is the first time that OLED screens have been used in the iPad range, it's expected that production will ramp up after an initial testing period. The Elec predicts full production will be in March, with a launch in April.

Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) screens give superior contrast ratios, and since they do not require a separate backlight layer, also result in much thinner displays.

OLED is already used in the iPhone, but in what's called a single-stack. For the larger iPad Pro screens, Apple insisted on two-stack OLED, which makes the display brighter, last longer — and cost more.

There is no other detail about the configuration of the new iPad Pro models, but previous reports have said it will use the new M3 processor. Those reports also claim that an M3 OLED iPad Pro will be hugely more expensive than the current models.

The Elec is a decent source of information from within Apple's supply chain, but it is less accurate in predictions it forms about what Apple will do. Tuesday's report is more the former than the latter, and lines up with other information already reported about OLED iPad Pro units.