A report from early this week showed that Apple in the last quarter of 2021 sold more MacBook Pros with miniLED displays than all high-end OLED notebook manufacturers combined. That said, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes the company will push harder with this new MacBook.
In a tweet, Ming-Chi Kuo says that “although the notebook/PC market is suffering from inflation/Russian-Ukrainian war, Apple is still aggressively expanding the supply chain capacity of miniLED panels for MacBook Pro, aiming to increase 20-30%.”
What’s interesting about this report is that Kuo recently wrote that Apple is not planning to launch new miniLED products this year, meaning that a new 11-inch iPad with this panel was off the table.
Although 9to5Mac still has reasons to believe at least another miniLED product is coming this year – a Pro version of the Studio Display – it’s interesting to see that Apple aims to produce even more miniLED panels.
Not only will producing more miniLED eventually make it less expensive, but it also shows that the company got this new MacBook Pro right.
Here’s what DSCC’s Ross Young reported early this week about the MacBook Pro with miniLED display:
Q4’21 was a record quarter for Advanced Notebook displays rising 298% Q/Q and 1717% Y/Y to 4.8M panels. On an annual basis, 2021 was up 629% Y/Y to 8.2M panels. 2021 was 10% higher than predicted as both Apple’s MiniLED MacBook Pro’s and OLEDs outperformed in Q4’21. MiniLEDs surged to a 54% share in Q4’21 and earned a 32% share for the year on Apple’s successful launch of its 14.2” and 16.2” MacBook Pro’s. Apple surprised its competition with the 120Hz implementation with no OLED notebooks yet available at 120Hz. 2021 MiniLED results ended up being 30% above our forecast despite supply chain constraints as Apple and its partners worked through these issues better than expected.
The report also says that Apple is expected to lead this category with the MacBook Pro from Q4’21 to Q4’22, with at least a 40% share on a unit basis and a 56% share on a revenue basis each quarter.
