As Apple makes more use of OLED panels, Mini LED panel shipments will stop growing
At present, the shipment of mini LED panels is still growing. It is expected that this year’s shipment will reach 24.47 million units, and it will increase to 30 million units next year. However, starting from 2025, the shipment of mini LED panels will basically stop growing and will remain at about 30 million units per year from 2025 to 2027.
Apple introduced mini LED panels on its iPad and Macbook products starting in 2021, but it seems that it does not intend to expand the scope of its use. According to The Elec, Apple will use OLED panels for tablets and laptops in the future, which will affect the shipments of mini LED panels.
Image: Apple
It was previously reported that Apple may adopt Hybrid OLED technology, meaning an OLED panel that mixes rigid OLED panel and flexible OLED panel technologies. The substrate materials of rigid OLED panels and flexible OLED panels are different. The former is glass, while the latter is plastic, mainly polyimide, which will be encapsulated for protection. Hybrid OLED technology will use a glass substrate for a rigid OLED panel, as well as a thin-film encapsulation for a flexible OLED panel.
Apple hopes to use dual-stack OLED panels on iPad and Macbook products. This is different from the single-layer structure used by most smartphones at this stage, and at the same time the brightness is doubled, and the service life will be quadrupled. It is rumored that Apple will be the first to use OLED panels on the iPad Pro next year, and it will be used in the 13-inch MacBook Air in 2025.
Although Apple will not increase the purchase of mini LED panels, many TV manufacturers still choose to use them in high-end TVs, at least until 2027. It is expected that mini LED panels will shift more to TVs and monitors in three years, and purchases of notebook computers will decrease.
