On October tenth, Patently Apple posted a report titled “Apple Supplier LG Display has announced they now have complete control of key Core OLED materials that improves luminous efficiency+.” Today we’re learning that LG Display will apply a new OLED material set branded 'RDE' to future Apple iPad’s Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED).

The next OLED material set branded 'RDF' is expected to be first applied next year, and ‘RDG’ is expected to be applied first to the Apple MacBook, which is expected to be released in 2027. As a result, LG Display's OLED material set, which was used interchangeably in vehicles and IT products, is expected to be clearly differentiated in applications starting from RDE and RDF.

The Elec report further notes that LG Display is planning to apply a new material set, RDE, to Apple's OLED iPad Pro, which is scheduled to be released next year. LG Display is applying the 'RD' series material set to vehicle OLED and OLED for IT products.

The OLED currently being mass-produced by LG Display and the OLED for IT products such as the iPad that will be supplied to Apple in the future use a two-stack tandem structure in which two light-emitting layers are stacked. The OLED used in Apple's iPhone is a single stack product with one light emitting layer.

Two-stack tandem OLED has two light-emitting layers, so it can produce the same brightness with less power compared to the single-stack method. Improvements in product efficiency and lifespan are the expected effects of the two-stack tandem method.

LG Display's first RD series material set is RDA. At this time, it was used without distinction between IT products and vehicles. Based on IT products, RDA was used in the OLED of Lenovo's foldable laptop ThinkPad X1 Fold. RDC is known to have been applied to recently released foldable laptops such as LG Electronics' LG Gram Fold and HP's Specter Fold.  

Apple's first OLED iPad is scheduled to be released next year in two models, 11 inches and 13 inches. Panels are made by two companies: LG Display and Samsung Display.

It’s interesting that The Elec chose to highlight RDA based OLEDs being used primarily for foldable devices. We posted a report back in July titled “A new Rumor claims that Apple is in talks with Korean Display Makers for a Foldable Hybrid iPad-Notebook device for 2026.” Then last week a new rumor from DigiTimes that Apple was in and intensive development mode regarding a foldable iPad.

Is The Elec hinting that Apple too may use of RDA based OLED displays for their first-gen hybrid iPad-notebook device? Only time will tell.