New research into the shipment of OLED panels for tablets has revealed that Apple’s imminent OLED iPad Pro with M3 could trigger a significant increase in the market over the next five years and a nearly 700% increase in 2024 alone.
Apple is widely expected to unveil a brand new OLED iPad Pro in the coming weeks, possibly as early as May. The hotly-anticipated upgrade will bring a significant display boost to Apple’s best iPad, after a release drought of more than 500 days since the last new iPad.
According to UBI Research’s snappily named 2024 Mid-Large OLED Display Annual Report, spotted by DIGITIMES, “shipments of OLED panels for tablets are expected to grow from 12 million units in 2024 to 28.4 million units in 2028, with an average annual growth rate of 24.1%.”
OLED iPad to spur massive growth
While that broader outlook represents very significant growth expected over the coming years, the shipment of OLED tablets is expected to skyrocket in 2024 thanks to Apple’s upcoming foray into the market. According to the report, Just 1.3 million OLED tablets shipped in 2022, and only 1.8 million were shipped in 2023. Current Android offerings in the OLED tablet space include Huawei’s MatePad Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9. The predicted figure of 12 million for 2024 would represent a nearly seven-fold increase in shipments powered by Apple.
Alongside OLED, Apple’s new iPad Pro is expected to get the new M3 Apple silicon chip, most recently added to the M3 MacBook Air. Other rumored upgrades include a landscape front-facing camera orientation, a new Magic Keyboard, and the Apple Pencil 3. Also tipped for a release on the same day is the new iPad Air 6 sporting the M2 chip.
All of Apple’s iPad lineup is set for a refresh in the coming months. More recently it was reported that Apple also has a new iPad mini 7 in the works as well as a new low-end iPad, expected to be a “cost-reduced version of the 10th generation model from 2022.” While 2023 might have been the driest year for iPads in recent memory, 2024 is certainly going to turn the tables.
