Rumor: Apple delays devices with mini LED screens until next year

Apple would postpone its devices with mini-LED screens until next year, writes analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Securities. The products, including an iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, should have been released at the end of this year.

Production will start in the fall, with assembly to take place by the end of the year, Kuo writes, according to Apple Insider. Apple would see miniLED as screen technology for devices such as tablets, laptops and desktop screens for the next five years.

By providing the backlight with ten thousand mini LEDs, the screens can have a relatively high number of dimmable zones. The number of dimmable zones will probably not correspond to the number of mini LEDs, although nothing is known about this yet. The application of mini LEDs makes it possible to achieve a higher contrast compared to regular LCDs.

Apple announced the Pro Display XDR earlier this year. This $5,000 or $6,000 screen has 576 LEDs to dim parts of the screen. This is a fald-backlight, in which 576 zones can be dimmed individually. This is not yet a mini LED screen, because the individual LEDs are still too large to be qualified as mini LEDs.

Apple would like to provide three iPads and three Macs with the new technology. Among them are a new iPad Pro, a new, cheaper iPad, and a new mini. The Macs are a new version of the 16″ MacBook Pro, a MacBook Pro with 14″ screen and an iMac with 27″ panel.