Display Panels Needed for Retina Display MacBooks Will Cost Apple $100 More

The high resolution display panels needed for a Retina Display MacBook will add $100 to Apple's cost per device, according to DisplaySearch Senior Analyst Richard Shim. In fact, they are already available from suppliers.

"On typical Windows systems, there was a push for higher densities back when Vista was first coming out, but nothing really came of it," Shim said. "On monitors, it's been sort of an OS limitation where if you don't need it, there's obviously no reason to support it, and it adds cost because the yields are harder to maintain."

However, things have changed now due to Apple's marketing of the Retina Display for the iPhone and iPad.


"What's clear is that Apple's pushing it. They're pushing panel makers to come out with higher resolution panels because they've created a market demand for it, starting with their phones, now going to their tablets," Shim said. "Now what we're seeing in the supply chain is that they're going to move that to their notebooks, and it's becoming a premium feature."

Shim says a Retina Display panel for the 15-inch MacBook Pro would cost about $160 compared to the current $68 dollar panel used. For the MacBook Air it's $134 for a high resolution panel compared to the $69 Apple pays now.

It's unclear if these costs would be past on to consumers. Currently, you can get a higher resolution display for the MacBook Pro. For an extra $100, a customer can upgrade from the 1440x900 display to 1680x1050.

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