An earlier report claimed Apple caused a shortage in the LCD and OLED market by buying all the screens. Ars Technica is examining the possibility of an iTablet with an OLED-screen. They find it highly unlikely that such a screen will be in the Apple Tablet.
Ars caught up with Barry Young, Managing Director of the OLED Association, and asked him about the state of OLED in general and the Apple tablet rumors in specific.
The problem with the recent rumor that Apple is hoarding 10-inch OLEDs, Young explained, is that “there’s no real production of 10.1-inch panels” for anyone to hoard. If anyone were to produce a 10.1-inch panel, then it would have to be for a specific order. “I haven’t seen any of the OLED suppliers commit to that yet,” Young said of a hypothetical 10.1-inch panel production run.
The only company currently offering OLED panels is Samsung, but they can still only offer 150,000 10.1-inch panels per month. And that’s only possible if they change their entire production and the existing orders. A company like Apple needs more than 150,000 panels a month, which makes it highly unlikely the tablet computer will have an OLED-screen.
Another reason to expect a tablet without an OLED-screen is the fact that it’s not really Apple’s way to introduce a device that costs so much and offers not much compared to the price. The difference between an LCD version and an OLED version of the device would not be much, except for the price.
