According to a rumor from a few months ago, it was suggested that Apple could be planning on giving its iPad Air for 2022 a bit of an upgrade, more so than your usual refresh, and that an OLED display could be one of the upgraded features. At the moment, save for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Apple’s entire iPad lineup uses LCD as its display of choice.
However, that may no longer be happening. According to a research note by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he claims that Apple has cancelled their plans for an OLED iPad Air for 2022. Apparently this is because Apple wants to focus on the display of the 11-inch iPad Pro, which still uses LCD. Instead, Apple will use 2022 to upgrade the iPad Pro’s display which will see the entire iPad Pro lineup get mini LED displays.
The analyst suggests that this was apparently due to cost and performance issues, where Apple had planned to use an LTPS OLED display, but since it could not meet their requirements, they decided to cancel its plans.
Kuo’s claims seem to be in line with a report out of Korea last week, where they claim that Apple and Samsung were apparently working together to make an OLED display for the iPad, but those plans have since been cancelled. We’re not sure if those reports are related to each other, but it certainly feels like they’re linked.