The report says Apple's 2024 iPad may use hybrid OLED technology to make the body thinner.

CTOnews.com, Oct. 11, according to a report released by DigiTimes, Apple may adopt a "hybrid" OLED technology in the iPad in 2024, which can reduce production costs while making the device thinner.

The report says that by combining rigid OLED glass substrates with flexible OLED film packaging, OLED panels can be thinner than rigid OLED panels and cheaper to produce than flexible OLED panels because it does not require a backlight layer.

CTOnews.com learned that South Korean media the Elec first mentioned hybrid OLED technology in an August report, which also said that Apple prefers hybrid OLED to the flexible OLED panel used in iPhone because of its obvious tendency to "crumple", especially at large screen sizes.

The latest DigiTimes report further confirms this claim, with industry insiders revealing that Apple has included Taiwan-based SMT (Surface Mounting Technology) in its supply chain, and SMT may participate in the upcoming mini LED backlight supply of 12.9in iPad Pro and MacBook Pro.

Apple has provided financial support for SMT to expand its production capacity, with some devices dedicated to mini LED backlighting in the SMT process, which is more difficult to achieve than standard LED backlighting, because the former requires more mini LED chips, the report said.

Currently, only 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro use mini LED screens, and all three devices are expected to be updated to M2 chips by the end of the year.