Omdia predicts Apple will launch foldable screen iPhone in 2026 and OLED iPad Air in 2028

According to news on March 16, market research agency Omdia recently held a press conference in Seoul, South Korea. Senior researcher Kang Min-soo talked about Apple’s OLED panel development plan and information about folding screens.

Based on Omdia reports, the relevant information is summarized as follows:

Apple launches OLED iPad Pro this year to promote the development of OLED tablets

Kang Min-soo said:

Tablet computers The market is almost monopolized by Apple, and even if (other companies) use hybrid OLED (glass substrate film), not many brands can surpass Apple's dominance. There are not many brands actively adopting OLED (in the tablet market), so global demand for tablet OLED is expected to be quite low.

We estimate that Samsung Display Co. and LG Display Co. will ship around 9 million iPad OLED units this year. Apple can fine-tune shipments after seeing the market response to the launch of the OLED iPad Pro in April-June. LG Display is producing 13-inch products and Samsung Display is producing 11-inch products. Kang Min-soo estimates that global tablet OLED shipments will exceed 10 million units in 2024, reach 30 million units in 2028, and then stabilize at 30 million units by 2030. Year-by-year forecasts are: 3.5 million units in 2023, 10.3 million units in 2024, 16.7 million units in 2025, 22.3 million units in 2026, 27.3 million units in 2027, 29.6 million units in 2028, 31.1 million units in 2029, 2030 32.1 million units annually.

Apple will launch OLED iPad Air in 2028

Kang said:

Apple iPad Pro plans to switch to OLED panels this year, and we estimate that the iPad Air in 2028 will also use OLED. The iPad Air will use a single-layer stacked OLED, and the iPad Pro will use a double-layer series OLED. The backplane (TFT) technology of both iPad Air and iPad Pro will use low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO), and power consumption will be an important factor for future OLEDs.

OLED Notebooks

Kang said

Demand for laptop OLEDs is expected to expand due to the emergence of artificial intelligence or new high-end laptops. In the laptop market, unlike tablets, many brands compete with each other. We expect more companies to adopt OLED for differentiation.

Rigid OLEDs use a glass substrate and glass encapsulation, while single-stack OLEDs use a single light-emitting layer. While hybrid OLEDs (glass substrate film cladding) and dual-tandem OLEDs (two light-emitting layers) (used in Apple's OLED iPads) are superior to existing rigid OLEDs in terms of thickness, longevity, and luminance (brightness), this This means that PC manufacturers will use rigid OLED as a relatively low-end product. Omdia expects global notebook OLED shipments to exceed 5 million units in 2024, growing 10 times to 58.1 million units by 2030. Year-by-year forecasts show a steady growth trend, with 3.3 million units in 2023, 5.1 million units in 2024, 7 million units in 2025, 18.5 million units in 2026, 29.4 million units in 2027, and 29.4 million units in 2028. 42.7 million units, 49.2 million units in 2029, and 58.1 million units in 2030.

A 7-8-inch foldable iPhone will be launched in 2026

Kang said:

We predict that Apple will launch a 7-8-inch foldable iPhone in 2026 and a 7-8-inch foldable iPhone in 2025. iPhone SE4 uses low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) TFT OLED, while the entire iPhone 17 series, launched in the second half of next year, is equipped with LTPO TFT.

Apple has been developing under-screen technology (hiding the front camera module or FaceID under the display), which was originally planned to be launched in 2024, but the latest news said it has been postponed to 2027, which leaves less room for differentiation in the iPhone series . Currently, the only 7-8-inch products sold by Apple are the iPad Mini, and the iPad Mini still uses LCD. This is an area where a 7-8-inch foldable could differentiate itself from the iPad Mini. Kang said

(7-8-inch foldable products) have more room in design (than small foldable products around 6 inches), and Apple can learn from what many competitors have already done How to play with foldable phones.

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