The latest Digitimes report claims that Apple will be utilizing IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) flat panels instead of IPS (in-plane switching panels) in its "next-generation mobile display products" such as the iPad 3.
Starting with the new iPads, Apple will utilize IGZO panels from Sharp in order to upgrade the display resolution of the new tablets to full HD level, the sources indicated.
Given Digitimes' misstep just yesterday about Apple's plans for Macworld, it might be hard to take their new report at face value.
However, this is not the first time that we've heard that Apple will be pursuing this new technology for the iPad 3. A research note from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek back in November made very similar claims:
Also, we believe that Apple and Sharp together have a modified IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) technology to achieve 330 dpi, which is sufficient for an HD display while not using IPS nor having to include dual-bar LED backlighting. In our view, this should lead to several design advantages, namely the device can be thinner, battery life should be longer, and the overall experience for users should be meaningfully improved.
Sharp announced plans in April to commercialize these new IGZO panels for mass production later this year. The advantages of the new technology that should allow for lower power consumption and higher resolution displays. DisplayBlog recaps the advantages of this new technology:
The benefits of IGZO are plenty: lower cost of manufacturing, up to 30x higher electron mobility than a-Si (amorphous silicon), increased aperture ratio for improved light transmittance, higher resolution in terms of ppi, etc. IGZO would allow for significant cost reductions compared to LTPS (Low Temperature Poly-Silicon) based high resolution LCDs like the rumored 9.7-inch 2048×1536 IPS LCD for the iPad 3.
It sounds as if this new technology will allow Apple to avoid adding a second light bar system to the more traditional IPS display that is presently used in the iPad. It may also allow Apple to avoid making the iPad 3 thicker than the current iPad, and should consume less power.
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors.
Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too.
2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3
Apple didn't update the...
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report.
iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design
The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
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Thursday April 24, 2025 8:24 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device.
Overall, the iPhone 17 Air sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a...
Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years.
iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack)
At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
Regardless of whether this particular rumor is true, it illustrates an advantage of Apple's bottomless cash pile. Instead of simply adopting the latest technology for their products, they can actually drive innovation. Because they trust their instincts about picking winning and losing tech, they can afford to partner with a huge mfr (like Sharp) to bring a promising technology to market. That will give Apple some level of exclusivity, at least for a period of time, instead of getting the tech at the same time as everyone else.
Same thing with the OS. Because Apple has its own OS, they can easily differentiate themselves from all other OEMs. The only way a Windows OEM can differentiate themselves is price -- the race to the bottom. Even if an OEM could afford to bankroll some new technology or a new OS, they wouldn't take the chance.
That's why Google is allowing OEMs to customize the Android OS -- they're hoping to escape the same fate as Microsoft. But in attempting to avoid one problem, they've created another -- fragmentation.
* TV's operate at fixed resolutions to match their content. Home theater enthusiasts want 1:1 pixel display, so they don't want a "retina" TV. * Below a couple inches thickness measurements is not important in a TV set (no LED buyers, it's not), as at that point the stand will be the "deepest" part of the set. * Power consumption is not very important in an item that runs off household electrical power instead of batteries.
1) I'm not sure what you're saying here. But a lot of the content you see on TV isn't 'fixed', it's any combo of 1080i/1080p/720i/720p and everything between and below. LCDs have only one native resolution, and any fixed multiple below that (ie: half resolution (ie 540p for 1080p), or quarter res)
2) Well, the thickness of panels is more or less immaterial to their performance (apples to apples, ie LED to LED backlit), but to disregard it's importance in sale-ability is wrong. The thinnest TV's, which are the LED ones currently are less than an inch thick, but have much better image quality compared to their thicker counterparts, CCFL backlit panels (I can't comment on Plasmas). Also, you can wall mount those razor thin panels, so they barely stick out at all.
3) By all means then, you can stick with your older generation CCFL panels, they use >2x the power of a similar sized panel (we have energy ratings here, dunno about other countries). That's not a saving to be dismissed lightly. And where have you been anyway, the whole world is trying to save electricity these days.
The latest Digitimes report claims that Apple will be utilizing IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) flat panels instead of IPS (in-plane switching panels) in its "next-generation mobile display products" such as the iPad 3. 
