Apple’s ultra-thin OLED iPad Professional fails to spark gross sales surge
A brand new report from the availability chain claims that Apple is growing one new iPad Professional for launch in 2025, however that will probably be only a spec bump replace.
It is beforehand been rumored that an up to date iPad Professional with an M5 processor can be launched in late 2025, although all such studies have presumed the replace can be for each the 11-inch and 13-inch fashions. Now a brand new report from The Elec describes only one mannequin being up to date, however it’s nonetheless unlikely that it will not apply to each.
The report in The Elec is concentrated on a particular OLED part firm — LX Semicon — which is claimed to be hoping to realize approval from Apple for mass manufacturing for one machine. The corporate makes Show Driver ICs (DDIs), which is a processor that controls the display.
Apple has beforehand used Samsung for the DDI, so it is possible that LX Semicon is making an attempt to realize simply a part of the order.
That is not sure and it is not clear which mannequin this firm hopes to assist manufacture, however the suggestion is that Apple approval is forthcoming. If approval is granted by March 2025, LX Semicon will begin supplying some proportion of DDI orders, and due to this fact Apple’s reliance on a single supply could be diminished.
It is attainable that having multiple provider would additionally see competitors driving the associated fee down. That is reportedly what is going on with LX Semicon’s manufacturing of the DDIs for the OLED iPhone 16 vary, the place it’s now dealing with elevated competitors from Taiwan’s Novatech.
Nonetheless, if approval will not be granted — due to high quality points, as an example — then it’s anticipated that Samsung will proceed to produce the entire iPad Professional’s DDIs for each Samsung Show and LG Show display producers
Past which corporations can be producing elements, the brand new report describes the 2025 iPad Professional as a “minor change.”
It is most definitely that the chassis and general design will stay the identical, then. Whereas not specified, the most definitely spec bump improve is a transfer to the M5 processor.
Apple launched the M4 with the 2024 iPad Professional fashions, which had been additionally the primary to come back with OLED screens. That mixture, although, didn’t spark the variety of improve consumers that Apple could have anticipated.
Beforehand, the iPad Professional was additionally differentiated from the lower-cost iPad Air by being the one iPad to come back in 13 inches. The early 2024 iPad Air replace that launched a larger-screen mannequin could have cannibalized gross sales of the iPad Professional.
