Apple will invest USD 200 million to increase the production of mini LED panels.
The mini LED panel is the panel used on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021, which reportedly has a high market demand. Then Apple also plans to use this panel in other products.
According to a DigiTimes report, Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on mini LED production equipment. The equipment will be used by Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology (TSMT), which is the only supplier of mini LED panels used by Apple.
The report also states that Apple is having difficulty meeting market demand for the 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which uses a mini LED panel.
In addition to the iPad Pro, Apple will also reportedly release a new MacBook Pro that has 14 and 16-inch screens with mini LED technology. In addition, Apple will also use mini LEDs on the iPad mini 6 and the cheapest iPad.
With this USD 200 million investment, Apple hopes TSMT can increase the production of mini LED panels by 700 thousand to 800 thousand panels per month.
Mini LED panels have advantages (and disadvantages) compared to regular LED panels. The advantage is that this panel has lighting per zone, which can make the level of contrast higher.
But the downside is, because this panel has thousands of mini LEDs spread across the screen, the product process becomes more complicated and the production cost is higher. Then there is also a weakness reported to appear on the iPad Pro, namely the halo effect that appears in high contrast conditions, such as displaying white text on a black background.
To solve this problem, it is reported that Apple will switch to OLED panels for iPad devices and this mini LED panel will be used in the MacBook line. The problem is that mini LEDs don't appear in larger screen sizes, and they are still cheaper than OLED panels.
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