Ross Young, CEO of screen supply chain consulting company DSCC, recently published a blog post, claiming that Apple will launch iPad Pro products using OLED panels in April this year.
Part of the blog post by Ross Young read:
“According to our supply chain sources, both Samsung Display (SDC) and LG Display (LGD) started shipping OLED iPad panels in February this year.
“The initial plan was for LGD to exclusively supply 12.9-inch panels, and LGD and SDC to share orders for 11.1-inch panels.”
Later, some reports pointed out that due to the first OLED tablet panel using LTPO, series stacking and glass thinning leading to lower yields, OLED panel prices remained high, resulting in reduced demand, so only SDC supplied 11.1-inch panels.
The latest news is that LGD is expected to start shipping 11.1-inch panels in March.
Based on the information currently available, it seems that SDC cannot meet the shipment requirements alone as the shipment volume of 12.9-inch panels far exceeds that of 11.1-inch panels. By April, after LGD also supplied 11.1-inch panels, the order share for 12.9-inch panels seemed to still be 22% higher.
It was originally thought that the 11.1-inch would sell far more than the 12.9-inch, and we even heard that based on pricing, it would sell twice as much as the 12.9-inch.
However, if we exclude LGD’s 11.1-inch products, sales of 11.1-inch products are 32% lower than 12.9-inch products, and it is clear that Apple needs SDC and LGD to significantly increase sales of 11.1-inch products at the same time to get close to demand.
We expect these products to be released in late March or early April. It may not be available until April. Apple may also announce the release of the 12.9-inch LCD iPad Air simultaneously, and the panel for the 12.9-inch iPad Air has started shipping in December.