Apple could be plotting to switch to OLED for its tablet and laptop displays

Your next iPad Pro or MacBook Pro could come with an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display attached, according to new reports from Asia. The primary reason? A shortfall in iPhone sales.

According to ETNews, Apple owes a penalty to Samsung for not buying as many iPhone displays as it promised to. Apparently, that penalty might be paid through future orders for tablet and laptop devices.

It’s not a rumor that’s come completely out of the blue – there had already been whispers that Apple would turn to OLED technology for the next round of iPad Pro devices and for the 16-inch MacBook Pro that is reportedly in development.

The most recent MacBook Pro bump was just last month, though it wasn’t a major revision. The last iPad Pro launch, meanwhile, was back in October, so we could be due new models before the end of the year.

OLED vs LCD

OLED and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) take different approaches to screen tech, mostly in the way the screens are lit: pixel by pixel, in the case of OLED, or across the display as a whole, in the case of LCD.

Thanks to advances in manufacturing processes down the years, both OLED and LCD can give you very good screens – the differences aren’t as…