Apple has cancelled a joint project with Samsung, which plans to equip the upcoming 10.9-inch iPad Air with an OLED panel developed by Samsung. People familiar with the matter revealed that the project was stopped because of the single-layer structure of the new OLED panel or profitability issues, both of which may exist.
The single-layer structure is currently widely used OLED panel structure, red, green, and blue form an emission layer. According to reports, Apple is not satisfied with the brightness level of single-layer OLED panels and is also worried about the service life of the panels. Because smartphones compared to consumers usually iPad held for longer, the smartphone upgrade cycle and more aggressive.
Instead, Apple hopes to use a two-layer tandem structure for its first OLED iPad, which means stacking two red, green and blue-emitting layers instead of just one. This doubles the brightness and extends the life of the panel four times. However, according to reports, Samsung has only achieved the commercialization of a single-layer structure, either incapable or unwilling to provide technology with a double-layer structure.
It is said that profitability is also a factor in Samsung’s reluctance to provide this technology. Unless Samsung can be sure that the OLED iPad Air will be sold for a long time, it is not worthwhile to prepare for the back-end module process of the product. Most of the rumors we heard about the OLED iPad Air indicate that it will be launched in 2022, and today’s South Korean report doubled the proposed launch time for that year.
As early as March of this year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is expected to start using OLED next year, and DigiTimes also predicts that the OLED iPad will be released in 2022. Websites such as ETNews also believe that these are all dependent on supply chain data.
OLED technology is expensive, which is a factor that has so far limited it to small devices such as the iPhone and Apple Watch. When used on the iPad, it will bring better brightness, higher contrast, deeper blacks and wider viewing angles.
