Why Apple hasn’t build an Apple 5K Cinema Display yet

Look at the past

Apple doesn’t regularly update their displays. They provide a significant update every few years and then they keep selling that same display for years.

  • 27″ Thunderbolt Display : 5 years
  • 27″ Led display: 3 years
  • 24″ LED Display: 2 years

So, if they had released a new 5K Thunderbolt 3 display last fall, chances are they’d keep selling it for years. Unchanged.

The iMac

Apple’s iMac and displays go hand in hand. Technological advances in one, often show up in the other. When Apple released their first 27” iMac, the display followed swiftly. When the iMac got a brighter screen, the Thunderbolt Display followed and also got a better panel.

So, normally we’d expected Apple to take the retina iMac 27” 5K panel, and turn it into a display for their notebook and desktop lineup too.

So why not?

The iPad

In iOS 9.3 Apple added Night Shift mode to iOS. Now finally in macOS 12.4 they will also add it to macOS, sherlocking F.lux while they’re at it.

The iPad Pro 9.7” is their first device that has a True Tone display. A display that Phil Schiller described as:

“It’s really natural to use,” Schiller added. “Once you use this display, you’ll never want to go back. It is quite a breakthrough.”

Some people expect the next 12.9” iPad to have one too, and sooner rather than later the iPhone will too.

My Guess

Imagine a new 2017 iMac doesn’t only has Night Shift mode via software, but also gets a True Tone display. That combined with Thunderbolt 3 and USB C would make it a great update that builds on technologies that exist in their current lineup.

Now, if they release such an iMac it would immediately make any 5K display that doesn’t support True Tone look old and lower specced.

So:

  • Apple’s Displays have a slow refresh rate.
  • They don’t make an Apple 5K Cinema Display (yet).
  • They don’t sell any True Tone desktop Macs (yet).

If you were Apple and you could choose:

  • Release an Apple 5K Cinema Display in 2016 and sell it for a few years unchanged.
  • Push an LG display in 2016, and release an Apple 5K True Tone display sometime in 2017.

Which one would be the most logical?

Right. And that’s why they haven’t released a display of their own yet.