Kuo: Apple cancels plans to bring OLED display to iPad Air next year

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iPad Air 4
iPad Air 4 (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple has reportedly canceled plans to bring an OLED display to the iPad Air next year.
  • The company will reportedly focus on the 11-inch iPad Pro next year.
  • It is possible the technology could come to the iPad Air in 2023.

It sounds like we have some time to wait for an OLED display to come to the iPad Air.

In a new note seen by iMore, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that Apple has canceled its plans to bring an OLED display to the iPad Air, something the company had apparently been planning to do next year.

According to the note, one of the reasons to delay such an upgrade could be to focus on bringing a mini-LED display to the 11-inch iPad Pro. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is currently the only iPad Pro to feature the newer display technology.

In terms of marketing, iPad Pro with an 11-inch Mini-LED display will be the marketing focus of the iPad product line in 2022. However, because OLED is positioned as a high-end display technology in the mobile phone and TV market, if Apple also launches OLED iPad Air in 2022, it may not be detrimental to the advanced product positioning and shipment of iPad Pro with an 11-inch Mini-LED display.In terms of technology, the original iPad Air was intended to use a LTPS OLED display. Because the performance and cost could not meet Apple's requirements, Apple cancelled its plan to launch OLED iPad Air in 2022.

Kuo's prediction lines up with a report from last week that announced that Apple and Samsung ended a joint effort to bring OLED displays to the iPad Air in 2022. The technology still could come to the iPad Air, but it sounds like we'll have to wait until at least 2023 for that to happen.

Apple debuted its new iPad Air back in 2020. The new Air adopted the design and many of the features of the higher-end iPad Pro models as well as works with the company's more "professional" iPad accessories like the 2nd generation Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard for iPad.

iPad Air 4
iPad Air 4


Bottom line: The iPad Air 4 is so powerful that for a lot of people, it's the better choice over the iPad Pro.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.