Since Jobs released the original iPad in 2010, the history of tablets has been more than 10 years. The tablet industry has undergone a lot of changes in the past decade, and what has not changed is that Apple still has absolute dominance in this field. Of course, the iPad has also experienced glory to cold, and then to the revival and rise.
At present, the division of Apple's tablet product line has been very clear and mature, the cheap iPad mainly attacks the sinking market, the Air and mini series focus on the mid-range market, and the iPad Pro firmly stands at the top of the pyramid through strong configuration and cutting-edge technology, maintaining an advantage in the high-end and professional markets.
For tablet products, the screen is undoubtedly one of the most core elements. On the screen technology route, Apple has gone out of its own rhythm. On the iPad Pro 12.9, which debuted in 2021, Apple used cutting-edge Mini LED technology to stuff more than 10,000 lamp beads behind the 12.9-inch screen, bringing a better experience in terms of brightness, contrast, color and so on.
However, all along, the revelations about the OLED iPad have not stopped. A few days ago, ET News quoted industry chain news that LG showed that it will produce OLED panels for Apple in 2024 for iPad products. The news related to OLED iPad seems to indicate that in addition to traditional LCD and Mini LED, Apple has another technical route on the iPad.
OLED will not replace Mini LEDs
In mobile phone products, OLED has completely replaced the LCD screen, and the flagship machine is almost the same OLED screen. Regarding the advantages of OLED, we have mentioned many times in many articles in the past, which is nothing more than better display effect, lower power consumption, thinner and lighter, higher plasticity and so on. Correspondingly, the cost of OLED is also much higher than LCD, but the rapid rise of domestic OLED panel manufacturers has greatly alleviated this disadvantage.
However, in tablet products, OLED is still far from popular. Xiao Lei personally believes that the main reason is still in the cost. In the competition with the iPad, the Android tablet has been at a disadvantage for a long time, many manufacturers including Google have even given up the tablet product, the remaining Android tablet is basically in the middle and low price, intentionally and iPad Pro staggered competition. In this case, Android manufacturers are more inclined to give more cost-effective LCD screens on tablets.
In addition, in Xiao Lei's view, even if the OLED iPad is launched, it will not replace the existing Mini LED screen iPad, and the positioning of the two should be different. There is no doubt that the iPad, which is more cutting-edge in technology and has more fierce parameters, will be Apple's most high-end tablet product. Take the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro as an example, the manual maximum brightness can reach 1000 nits, HDR excitation brightness can have 1600 nits; and the brightness ceiling of the large-screen OLED is there, the peak brightness can be 600 nits is not easy, taking Samsung's latest Tab S7 Plus as an example, the brightness is about four or five hundred nits.
In other words, for tablets, the positioning of the OLED screen should be between the Mini LED and the traditional LCD, and the possibility of OLED replacing the Mini LED is very low.
On the iPad, Apple will also diversify its suppliers
In the breaking news at the beginning of the article, the protagonist in addition to Apple, there is also its old friend LG, not Samsung, who loves and kills Apple. LG is one of Apple's most stable partners, providing LCD screens for iPhones and iPads in the early years, and then supplying OLED screens to Apple Watch, and now it has entered the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 supply chains. Moreover, the LG mobile phone business has come to an end, which can dispel Apple's worries and is more reassuring than Samsung. Diversifying suppliers and not putting eggs in one basket are Apple's long-term strategies.
In terms of iPad, LCD screens are still mainstream, and suppliers have had Sharp, LG, Samsung, BOE and so on. Relatively speaking, the threshold of OLED panels is much higher, Apple has not launched the OELD iPad for a long time, there should be concerns in this regard, it is difficult for other manufacturers outside Samsung to provide large-screen OLED panels that meet Apple's requirements in large quantities. LG closed its LCD factory and expanded ITS PRODUCTION capacity, naturally to match Apple's needs.
Of course, with Apple's strategy, the OLED panel supplier of iPad will not stay in LG, and it is estimated that it will also include screen manufacturers such as BOE. Although BOE has unreliable revelations every year that it wants to supply the screen to the iPhone, a bit of a wolf feeling, it is undeniable that BOE's panel business, including OLED, is indeed thriving, and has long become an important partner of major mobile phone manufacturers, and there are many high-end products.
Therefore, Xiao Lei believes that Apple has opened up the OLED iPad product line, which will benefit not only LG, but also domestic panel manufacturers will get opportunities from it. And like the iPhone X era, the situation in which Samsung is dominant and Apple is helpless is estimated not to appear. However, if Apple and Samsung talk closely, it is estimated that there will still be OLED iPad equipped with Samsung screen.
From a consumer standpoint, we don't really care about which supplier the screen on the product comes from, but we will mind the difference in quality between different panels. If you buy a tablet screen and want to draw a blind box lottery, it can be said that it is an extremely bad experience. And Apple in this regard is not without turning over the car, the case in the early years of the A9 chip Samsung TSMC version mixed use, in recent years is the iPhone 12 "green screen door" mixed with Samsung LG screen. Therefore, if the OLED iPad also has to engage in screen mixing, Apple must achieve a consistent experience so that it will not be flooded with consumer spit.
Dessert grade iPad is more fragrant?
As we said earlier, the olED iPad is most likely positioned between the cheap iPad and the high-end iPad Pro. At present, Apple's Selling Mini LED Tablet is only a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, from the perspective of market response, although it is not perfect, but Mini LED has been recognized to a considerable extent, and the screen display effect has indeed been greatly improved. Not surprisingly, Apple should continue to advance Mini LED technology on the iPad Pro series, and OLED screens are likely to be used on the iPad Air and iPad mini series.
Apple's official website is currently on sale with the iPad Air 4 and iPad mini 6, the former released in September 2020, can be seen as the iPad Pro 11-inch version of the shrinkage of the year, castrated the high brush and Face ID, the price has also been reduced to 4000 yuan price; the latter is updated in September 2021, basically equivalent to a scaled down version of the iPad Air 4, but the chip is stronger, upgraded to A15, the price is 3799 yuan.
It is not difficult to find that Apple's definition of the mid-range iPad is estimated to be around the price of 4,000 yuan, and it is a proper flagship on the Android tablet. Even if the cost of OLED panels is not low, there is no pressure to equip them at this price. Considering the LG OLED production capacity and the rhythm of Apple product updates, Xiao Lei boldly guessed that Apple would first give an OLED screen to one of the Air or mini series products. In terms of the time node of 2024, high brushing should not be regarded as a flagship exclusive feature at that time, and the cost can also be reduced, so the possibility of OLED iPad having high brushing is still quite high.
Since the OLED panel is on, everyone inevitably has to care about the problem of screen fingerprints. On the iPhone technology route, Apple is extremely determined to abandon fingerprints and fully promote Face ID. But from the results, Although Apple's approach has established certain competitive technical barriers, it has sacrificed a lot in experience. On the one hand, the bangs caused by Face ID have slowed down the evolution of the iPhone full screen, on the other hand, the epidemic has made the experience of face unlock plummeting, far less than the screen fingerprint of the Android camp.
Previously, Bloomberg and other media revealed that Apple has tested the screen fingerprint function on the iPhone, but it will not replace Face ID, but as a supplement to the existing biometric methods. In this way, if the iPhone intends to use screen fingerprints, then the possibility of OLED iPad testing the water first is still very large.
In general, the OLED screen on the iPad Air or iPad mini series can make the corresponding products more competitive. Xiao Lei believes that the iPad Air and iPad mini series are relatively cost-effective, and the core performance, screen, appearance, etc., although it is not up to the level of iPad Pro, but it can basically reach the level of the first echelon, which is a dessert-level product suitable for pragmatists.
Traditional LCDs are hard to change their lives
The OLED screen on the mid-range dessert-grade iPad seems to be the inevitable result of the continuous development of panel technology. After all, compared with traditional LCD, OLED has too many technical advantages, and mainstream panel manufacturers have put their main resources on OLED panels. LG, JDI and other manufacturers that once produced excellent LCD screens are now reversing direction. Apple began to make the iPhone turn to the OLED camp in 2017, and the Apple Watch was on the OLED screen at the beginning.
Xiao Lei also believes that the emergence of OLED iPad can enhance the user experience. However, this change also shows that traditional LCDs will be further marginalized. "LCD is never a slave" is only a joke after all, OLED has achieved a stage victory.
However, Mini LED can actually be regarded as an upgraded version of LCD technology that draws on the characteristics of OLED, with the advantages of two screens, and to do blue out of blue and better than blue, before the iPad Pro has been used in TVs, displays, notebooks and other products, in addition to expensive, basically there is no big drawback. In addition, many people believe that the next form of Mini LED is Micro LED, which will be able to more completely eliminate the life of OLED.
However, these are too far away from us ordinary users, no matter what screen panel, as long as the experience is higher, consumers will support it, and the same is true for OLED iPad.