[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Apple may apply OLED displays that support a wider colour gamut than current models to future MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and iMac products. The outlook is that Apple will not only expand its adoption of OLED but also improve colour reproduction to strengthen next-generation display competitiveness.

On June 29 local time, IT outlet 9to5Mac reported that market research firm TrendForce analysed Apple plans to gradually introduce OLED panels capable of achieving 95 percent of the BT.2020 colour gamut in future MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and iMac models. BT.2020 is an international video standard that supports a wider colour space than P3, which is used in Apple’s main products.

The key to the outlook is that Apple’s OLED strategy could go beyond a simple panel replacement and move toward raising image-quality standards themselves by one level. TrendForce predicted Apple will gradually expand the use of panels that deliver colour reproduction at about 95 percent of BT.2020 across its main OLED product line-up.

The timeline for shifting Macs to OLED is also becoming more specific. The industry is raising the possibility that Apple could unveil a new MacBook Pro or MacBook Ultra with OLED as early as this year. An OLED iMac is being discussed as a possibility for release several years later. Reports of OLED transitions for MacBooks and iMacs have persisted for years, but more concrete supply-chain information has recently been emerging, particularly around laptops.

Apple already uses OLED displays in the iPhone, iPad Pro, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro. If OLED expands to Macs as well, it would mean most of its major hardware shifts to an OLED base. The report analysed that Apple is pursuing a strategy of broadening OLED use while also taking colour expression up by one level.

TrendForce pointed to advances in OLED material technology as the background to these changes. Panel makers are developing next-generation OLED materials that can deliver purer colour expression, improved power efficiency and longer lifespan at the same time, and Apple’s high requirements are accelerating related technology development, it said.

Supply-chain competition is also intensifying. Samsung Display is known to be developing next-generation OLED materials along with electroluminescent quantum dot, or EL-QD, technology. Chinese panel makers are also responding by applying new light-emission structures and increasing the share of domestically sourced materials. As a result, competition in the OLED market is being reshaped around colour reproduction, material technology and light-emission structures, beyond a simple expansion of output.

TrendForce forecast that competition in OLED will expand into a race to secure sustainable material platforms that consider not only efficiency and lifespan improvements but also costs, productivity and intellectual property, or IP, risks.

The analysis said Apple could also have a wider range of technologies to choose from among various suppliers that meet its standards. The industry expects that differentiation in future OLED Macs and iPads will expand beyond resolution and brightness to include colour gamut. It has also been raised as a possibility that Apple’s next-generation display strategy could become a factor driving advances in material supply chains and manufacturing technology, beyond competition in panel performance.

The market is watching what level of colour reproduction Apple will present as a new standard in actual product announcements.