Taiwanese company Ennostar will begin production of Mini-LED rear lighting units for a 12.9-inch iPad Pro next at the end of the first quarter or second quarter of this year, according to industry sources DigiTimes.
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Ennostar is a holding company that was jointly established in January 2021 by LED manufacturers Epistar and Lextar Electronics.
Apple is expected to unveil the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Mini-LED backlight in the first half of this year, with Epistar serving as the exclusive supplier of Mini-LED chips that will be packaged in Lextar rear lighting units , the report claims. . This time frame has been rumored several times, with some reports restricting the version to the first quarter, so it is possible that the new iPad Pro will be introduced in March.
The new 12.9-inch iPad Pro will also have a faster A14X chip and support for 5G networks on models with cellular connectivity.
It is unclear whether Apple intends to introduce a new 11-inch iPad Pro at the same time, as many rumors have only mentioned the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. One possibility is that the Mini-LED backlight will be limited to the 12.9-inch model, with the new key features of the 11-inch model limited to the A14X chip and 5G support, but it is not clear.
Apple will probably also adopt Mini-LED backlighting for the new MacBook models that will be unveiled in the second half of this year, according to the report. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models to be launched in the second half of 2021 with a new design, the return of an HDMI port and an SD card reader, the removal of the Touch Bar, Charge MagSafe with a separate power cord and more.