With Apple’s big iPad 3 announcement in San Francisco, the company is ramping up production of displays across the board. Aided by expected soaring sales of its upcoming next-generation iPad, Apple in 2012 is projected to nearly double its spending on displays used in media tablets and smartphones, according to IHS iSuppli Display Materials & Systems Service research from information and analytics provi der IHS.

Apple in 2012 is projected to spend an estimated $9.0 billion on display panels used in iPads and iPhones, up 91 percent from $47 billion in 2011, as presented in the figure attached. Driving this increase will be a 69 percent surge in Apple’s collective media tablet and smartphone shipments this year, along with the use of more expensive display technology, IHS predicts.

This fast growth and massive spending is bolstering Apple’s considerable influence in the global display market.

“Apple in 2011 had already established itself as a major purchaser of displays for smart phones and media tablets,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, senior manager for small & medium displays at IHS. “However, combined with continuing strong sales growth of the iPhone, the arrival of the new-model iPad will put Apple’s display-purchasing growth into overdrive in 2012. Along with the high volumes of expected sales, the use of more advanced technology will boost revenue for the iPad screens, increasing Apple’s display expenditures dramatically.”

Displays for the iPad

Launched in March 2010, the first iPads were equipped with a 9.7-inch XGA (1,024 by 768 pixels) display featuring 130 pixels per inch. Apple used LCD panels featuring in-plane switching/fringe field switching (IPS/FFS) technology that offered wide viewing angles and consumed less power without compromising the brightness and response time needed in a handheld, multimedia device.

Apple soon followed the iPad with the launch of the iPad 2—thinner and lighter than the first generation product but essentially using the same XGA display. Suppliers for the iPad include LG Display, Samsung Display and Taiwanese-based ChiMei Innolux.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 17 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Playboy Magazine, NVISION Magazine, GamePro Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Maxim.com, AOL GameDaily.com, GeForce.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.