Pulsestacks reported on April 24th that Apple has announced a special event scheduled for May 7th at 10 p.m. It is expected that the company will unveil a new iPad series, with the highly anticipated new iPad Pro powered by the M3 chip and featuring an OLED display for the first time. However, according to display analyst Ross Young, due to supply issues with OLED panels, the 11-inch version of the new iPad Pro may experience shortages during its initial release.
Young pointed out that the OLED display shipments for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro are higher than the 11-inch version at present. This is due to Samsung, one of the suppliers for the new iPad, facing some technical challenges in producing the two-stack tandem structure panels for the display. Young believes this situation will continue until May and may affect the launch supply of the 11-inch iPad Pro.
pulsestacks noted that Young had previously predicted a delay in the launch event of the new iPad Pro due to production constraints of the new display. It is reported that LG will be responsible for producing all 12.9-inch OLED panels, while the 11-inch version will be supplied by both LG and Samsung.
To corroborate Young's report, the tech website 9to5Mac discovered new-generation OLED display drivers from Samsung and LG in the test version of iPadOS 17.5, expected to come pre-installed on the new iPads. In addition to adopting OLED displays, the new iPad Pro will also feature a thinner design.
From the patterns on the invitation to the event, it is clear that the focus will be on the new iPad products. Apart from the highly anticipated M3 chip-powered new iPad Pro, there are rumors that Apple will unveil the iPad Air 6 with the M2 chip and introduce an iPad Air model with a 12.9-inch screen for the first time.
Apple will also release an upgraded version of the Magic Keyboard tailored for the new iPad Pro. Reports suggest that the new Magic Keyboard will feature an aluminum frame, giving the iPad Pro a more "laptop-like" appearance. Additionally, as discovered by 9to5Mac, the upcoming Apple Pencil 3 will support new "squeeze" gestures and integrate with Apple's "Find" network.
