iPad Air OLED Panel Orders Could Be Split With BOE in 2027

BOE, a Chinese panel maker, is seeking to secure a secondary sourcing role for the OLED panel in the upcoming redesigned iPad Air, reports South Korea's The Elec. The panel maker plans to ramp up production at its B12 fab in Chongqing, which houses the sixth-generation OLED production line, ahead of the launch of the redesigned iPad Air in the first half of 2027.

While Samsung Display holds the lead supply position for the iPad Air OLED panel and is expected to commence ramping production towards the end of this year or early next, BOE still needs to clear Apple's qualification process. Samples must be submitted for evaluation, and a decision on whether BOE will receive any commercial orders is not anticipated until closer to the end of the year.

Should BOE fail to meet the qualification criteria, Samsung Display will take on the entire initial production run by itself. A victory for BOE would represent a significant expansion for the company, which has experience supplying OLED panels for the iPhone but has faced challenges in entering larger OLED products. Samsung Display and LG Display have dominated this market, and BOE has seen a decline in its utilization on Apple's OLED lines, falling from approximately 82% in 2024 to about 48% earlier this year as Apple is expected to rely on Samsung for the upcoming OLED iPad mini.

The redesigned iPad Air will be offered in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes and features a hybrid OLED panel with a glass substrate, thin film encapsulation, a single stack RGB emissive layer, and an LTPS backplane, with a refresh rate of 60Hz. This keeps the iPad Air below the iPad Pro's tandem stack OLED panel in terms of cost while moving away from an LCD.

BOE is also reportedly in pursuit of a secondary supplier role for Apple's OLED MacBook Pro from its 8.6-generation B16 fab in Chengdu, but persisting yield issues make commercial shipments to Apple unlikely until sometime after 2028.