Kuo: Apple Cancels Plans to Release iPad Air With OLED Display in 2022, Plans to Stick With LCD Technology

[MacRumors]

Apple has canceled its plans to release an updated iPad Air with an OLED display next year due to concerns around quality and costs, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today in an investor note obtained by MacRumors.

In March, Kuo reported that Apple had an iPad Air with an OLED display in the pipeline for next year. Today, Kuo has revised his prediction, saying that will not be the case since Apple has canceled those plans due to costs and performance not meeting the company's expectations.

Kuo had previously stated that the 11-inch iPad Pro would be receiving a mini-LED display next year, and Kuo today doubled down on that claim by saying it will be the "focus of [the] iPad line in 2022." Currently, only the 12.9-inch iPad Pro includes the newer mini-LED technology. One reason Kuo states that Apple had canceled its OLED iPad Air is that it may have been detrimental to the sales of the forthcoming 11-inch iPad Pro with a mini-LED display.

While Apple plans to stick with an LCD display for the iPad Air, Kuo says the company continues to research and develop newer display technologies for the iPad line. A report last week suggested that Apple and Samsung had abandoned their joint plans to develop an OLED display for a forthcoming updated 10.9-inch iPad Air.

Article Link: Kuo: Apple Cancels Plans to Release iPad Air With OLED Display in 2022, Plans to Stick With LCD Technology

 

[dantracht]

Getting harder and harder for me to be motivated to upgrade ANYTHING Apple this year.

Would have upgraded one of my iPads to something OLED, now.....meh.

I went into the summer expecting to upgrade my 11PM, Mini 5, and even my AW6. Same for my GF with her XS max and AW3, now......we "might" get the 13PM around the holidays, if at all.

News like this doesn't help to motivate me.

From "I have to have the latest and greatest" to "what I have works so well I'll just.....not" in 2 short years.

 

[I7guy]

Anything to do with the related story about Samsung not producing the panels? And maybe they are too expensive?

 

[Freeangel1]

add some flickering to the screen too why don't cha.

 

[IMPOSSIBLEMAN]

Me: Customer Cancels Plans to Buy iPad Air in 2022, Plans to Stick With old iPad Air.​

 

[sdf]

Analyst speculates Apple will change technologies on a specific timeline. Apple doesn't. Oh, it's because something went wrong! Schedule slippage! DISAPPOINTMENT!

Why not express just a grain of skepticism, MacRumors? We like rumors. That doesn't mean they have real value and are equally credible.

 

[dantracht]

Me: Customer Cancels Plans to Buy iPad Air in 2022, Plans to Stick With old iPad Air.​

Same.

 

[now i see it]

Maybe the real reason is because they’re finally realizing that OLED PWM flickering is not good for anyone. We can only hope.

 

[jz0309]

Supply chain is suffering from long term covid…

 

[Bodhitree]

Really, who cares what Kuo or the other ‘leakers’ say? It is so much hot air until Apple officially announce the products.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Jelly scroll is not as popular as jelly roll?

 

[cmaier]

Maybe the real reason is because they’re finally realizing that OLED PWM flickering is not good for anyone. We can only hope.

Where’s even one peer-reviewed clinical study published in a reputable medical journal that says that?

 

[thadoggfather]

I am looking forward to the day we get an OLED iPad

 

[Lukomaldini]

I swear everybody was like “apple won’t use OLED in the iPads when they are using mini LED” I have a feeling the supply chain were never going to put OLED in iPad but apple just fed them crap. Would have been nice to see OLED in some of the consumer iPads though… definitely need to replace the existing LCD. Calling it Super Retina Liquid Retina doesn’t make it any better

 

[jayducharme]

I'm not really surprised, since the Air is more of a budget tablet. OLED isn't even on the iPad Pro models yet, which is where I thought it would first appear. I have the latest Pro and the screen seems perfectly fine to me. Even though my iPhone has an OLED screen, most of the time I don't notice any difference. I suspect *most* users of the Air wouldn't notice either.

 

[nicho]

While Apple plans to stick with an OLED display for the iPad Air,

It does @samifathi ? That's not the impression I get from the headline or the rest of the article...

 

[snipr125]

If they cancel the OLED screen in the next Air 5, maybe they will use the same liquid retina display as the Air 4 but with Pro motion? I would settle for that. Maybe the Pro 11 will also get a spec bump in line (mini led screen perhaps).

 

[MacStreamer]

It never made sense for the Air to get OLED when the 12.9 Pro just got miniLED.

 

[Voyageur]

ha ha ha, it's hard for this dude to admit that Apple wasn't going to do it. How convenient: first to hang up a crazy rumor, and then suddenly refute - profit!

 

[GMShadow]

I really doubt this was ever a thing. I think, much like the satellite connectivity and a lot of other things Ming-Chi says, this was just him talking out his rear.

 

[cmaier]

It never made sense for the Air to get OLED when the 12.9 Pro just got miniLED.

Yep. Pick one or the other, as a pit stop on the way to microLED. But using both is confusing, as OLED is better in some ways than miniLED.

 

[haruhiko]

Analyst: Apple will make this next year!
Also Analyst: Apple cancelled the plan.

*I’m not saying that Kuo made it up 😏

 

[slplss]

add some flickering to the screen too why don't cha.

Wouldn't be a win with OLED either. It would probably come with super low PWM (as OLED iPhones have), the risk of burn-in (an OLED classic), oversaturated colors and cheapest possible panel from Sammy, which will would reintroduce popular Jelly scrolling effect (as it happened with cheap Galaxy Tab S5e AMOLED).
A fine addition to Apple's "normal panel behaviour" collection.

 

[jz0309]

Maybe the real reason is because they’re finally realizing that OLED PWM flickering is not good for anyone. We can only hope.

PWM does NOT affect everyone…

 

[Populus]

If they cancel the OLED screen in the next Air 5, maybe they will use the same liquid retina display as the Air 4 but with Pro motion? I would settle for that. Maybe the Pro 11 will also get a spec bump in line (mini led screen perhaps).

Pro motion will remain as a Pro feature, as the name itself indicates. It’s one more reason to entice customers to get a Pro instead of an Air