According to the latest report from South Korea's "The Elec", Apple will exclusively use OLED touch screen panels produced by Samsung Display in its next-generation high-end MacBook Pro (which may be named MacBook Ultra). Sources revealed that the first batch of 14-inch and 16-inch panels will be put into production at Samsung's 8.6-generation OLED production line in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The initial supply is expected to be about 250,000 units, and large-scale mass production is planned to be officially launched around August this year.
It is reported that due to bottlenecks such as technical yield rate, Apple directly divested potential partners such as LG Display and BOE in the early research and development stage, allowing Samsung to win the full exclusive supply order for the project in one fell swoop.
In terms of product release rhythm, Bloomberg senior reporter Mark Gurman has repeatedly predicted that the new MacBook Pro series equipped with OLED touch screens will be released from the end of 2026 to early 2027. However, recent analysis reports pointed out that due to the superposition of supply chain factors such as global chip shortages, the release time is more likely to be postponed to early 2027.
As the largest comprehensive iteration of the high-end MacBook Pro in years, this series of new products will not only introduce an OLED screen that supports touch functions for the first time, but will also bring many disruptive hardware and software changes. These include upgrades to the powerful M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, the adoption of a Dynamic Island design that eliminates "bangs", a significantly compressed thin and light body, and the possibility of launching a new "MacBook Ultra" flagship product name for the first time. At the same time, the subsequent macOS 27 operating system will also fully introduce a new generation of interactive interface adapted to touch operations.