New iPad Pro model with OLED screen is rumored to increase in price, potentially costing over 80% more than the current model
The iPad product line is one of Apple’s important businesses, with annual sales of over 70 million units. In the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year (November 2022 to January 2023), sales amounted to nearly $9.4 billion. Earlier reports stated that Apple plans to launch a new iPad Pro with an OLED screen in 2024 and has already ordered 11-inch and 12.9-inch OLED panels from Samsung and LG.
According to a report by Wccftech, the new iPad Pro’s use of an OLED screen will bring better display quality, such as deeper blacks and higher color accuracy, but the cost may be higher than most people imagine. Rumors suggest that the starting price for the new 11-inch iPad Pro will be $1,500, which is more than 80% higher than the current version, while the starting price for the 12.9-inch version will be $1,800, which is more than 60% higher than the current version.
For comparison, Apple’s current MacBook Airs have starting prices of $999 and $1,199 for the M1 and M2 versions, respectively. In the MacBook Pro lineup, the starting prices for the 13-inch, 14-inch, and 16-inch versions are $1,299, $1,999, and $2,499, respectively. The significantly increased starting price for the 2024 iPad Pro is mainly due to the increased cost of using OLED screens, which is related to Apple’s high standards for screens.
According to past reports, Apple may use Hybrid OLED technology, which combines rigid OLED panels and flexible OLED panel technology. At the same time, Apple hopes to use double-layer OLED panels on the iPad series, which is different from the single-layer structure used in most smartphones. The brightness will double, and the service life will reach four times the original.
The substrates of rigid OLED panels and flexible OLED panels are not the same. The former is glass, while the latter is plastic, mainly polyimide, which will be encapsulated and protected. Hybrid OLED technology will use the glass substrate of rigid OLED panels and the thin film encapsulation of flexible OLED panels.
