iPad Air rumored to get OLED, but it might be a long wait

Rest to open iPad Air with Touch ID

If a market observer's predictions are correct, the iPad Air is slated to get OLED displays — but not for some time.

A conference this week spelled out what Omdia believes is Apple's screen roadmap for most of its devices. Particular focuses during the conference were Apple's iPhone and iPad lineups.

As it pertains to the iPad, researcher Kong Min-Soo notes that the iPad Pro will migrate to OLED in 2024, but that's been expected for some time. What was less expected was the prediction that it will take another four years for iPad Air to get the technology.

"We expect the iPad Air to change to OLED in 2028, and the iPad Air will use single-stack and two-stack tandem OLED for the iPad Pro," the researcher said.

The two-stack tandem OLED in iPad Pro isn't surprising either, that's been rumored for some time. Single-stack is a new detail, that this far out is nothing more than a guess about what aspect of OLED Apple will implement.

Two-stack OLED, as the name suggests, is multilayer, with two backlighting layers operating in tandem. It has the advantage of lower power usage and heat dissipation over a single-stack OLED display.

What's expected sooner, perhaps as soon as this month, are a conventional-size and a larger iPad Air Model. Rumored to be arriving shortly are 10.9-inch and 12.9-inch models.

Omdia's conference was detailed by The Elec on late Thursday night. The publication has a good track record as it pertains to Apple's supply chain, but a shaky track record of predicting Apple's timetables. Omdia is a decent market watchdog, but they too have problems with predicting Apple's moves.

In January, renders showing what the 12.9-inch iPad Air could look like surfaced, with the supposed CAD drawings proposing it may not have many design changes, aside from physical size and a new camera bump.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been saying recently that Apple would release two iPad Air models in the first quarter of 2024. The refreshed models are not expected to feature mini-LED, but will still get some benefits from using the same-spec Oxide backplane.

The device is also rumored to get a FaceTime camera on the long-axis of the device, similar to the positioning on the 10th generation iPad.