Omdia: Apple expected to launch OLED iPad Air in 2028

Research organization Omdia recently held a conference in Seoul, South Korea, researchers and talked about Kang Min-soo Apple OLED panel development plans.

　　Kang Min-soo said:

　　The tablet market is almost monopolized by Apple, and even if (other companies) use hybrid OLED (glass substrate + film), there are not many brands that can surpass Apple's dominance.

　　（Not many brands are actively adopting OLEDs (in the tablet market), so global demand for tablet OLEDs is expected to be quite low.

　　We estimate that Samsung Display and LG Display could ship around 9 million iPad OLEDs this year.

　　Apple could fine-tune its shipments after seeing the market response to the OLED iPad Pro launch in April-June, with LG Display making the 13-inch and Samsung Display making the 11-inch.

　　Kang Min-soo forecasts that global tablet OLED shipments will exceed 10 million units in 2024, reach 30 million units in 2028, and then stabilize at 30 million units until 2030.

　　Year-by-year forecasts are 3.5 million units in 2023, 10.3 million in 2024, 16.7 million in 2025, 22.3 million in 2026, 27.3 million in 2027, 29.6 million in 2028, 31.1 million in 2029 and 32.1 million in 2030.

　　Kang said:

　　Apple's iPad Pro is scheduled to switch to an OLED panel this year, and we expect the iPad Air to adopt OLED in 2028, with the iPad Air using a single-layer stacked OLED and the iPad Pro using a dual-layer tandem OLED.

　　Both the iPad Air and iPad Pro will use low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) for their backplane (TFT) technology, and power consumption will be an important factor in the future of OLEDs.

　　OLED Laptops

　　Kang said

　　Demand for laptop OLEDs is expected to expand due to the emergence of artificial intelligence or new high-end laptops.

　　In the laptop market, unlike tablets, many brands compete with each other. We expect more companies to adopt OLEDs to differentiate themselves.

　　Rigid OLEDs use a glass substrate and glass package, while monolayer OLEDs use a single light-emitting layer. While hybrid OLEDs (glass substrate + film cladding) and dual-layer tandem OLEDs (two light-emitting layers) (used in Apple's OLED iPad) outperform existing rigid OLEDs in terms of thickness, lifespan, and brightness (luminance), this means that PC makers will apply rigid OLEDs as a relatively low-end product.