Lower-priced Apple external display rumored to be on the way
Apple's Pro Display XDR could be joined by a second display aimed at Mac users, a report claims, giving consumers a more value-conscious option than the $4,999 pro-level screen.

At the moment, consumers wanting an external display for their Mac either have to pay a premium for the Pro Display XDR or go with a different brand of screen. In a report about Apple's future screen plans, it is forecast that an alternative option could be made available by Apple itself.
Writing in his latest Bloomberg "Power On" newsletter, Mark Gurman says he "strongly believes" Apple is working on a new "external monitor for its latest Macs."
In qualifying his response, Gurman offers that a lower-cost monitor would be "a hot seller for those looking to add a larger screen to their new MacBook Pro without spending the equivalent of a luxury car down payment on the Pro Display XDR."
The cost of producing the Pro Display XDR has "likely come down" since its launch, and with some tweaks and a small drop in brightness, Gurman reckons Apple could offer a similar-quality and slightly smaller monitor at around half the price.
Gurman's comments follow shortly after a rumor that LG was working on a trio of displays based on the current Pro Display XDR and iMac sizes, screens that could end up being branded with the Apple name. The leak pointed to the screens having sizes of 24, 27, and 32 inches, with the latter potentially supporting mini LED backlighting and a 120Hz refresh rate.
The suggestion of a cheaper Apple display is also not a new one. One Bloomberg report from January claimed one such external monitor was on the way, and that it would have a lower price than the Pro Display XDR.
Read on AppleInsider

At the moment, consumers wanting an external display for their Mac either have to pay a premium for the Pro Display XDR or go with a different brand of screen. In a report about Apple's future screen plans, it is forecast that an alternative option could be made available by Apple itself.
Writing in his latest Bloomberg "Power On" newsletter, Mark Gurman says he "strongly believes" Apple is working on a new "external monitor for its latest Macs."
In qualifying his response, Gurman offers that a lower-cost monitor would be "a hot seller for those looking to add a larger screen to their new MacBook Pro without spending the equivalent of a luxury car down payment on the Pro Display XDR."
The cost of producing the Pro Display XDR has "likely come down" since its launch, and with some tweaks and a small drop in brightness, Gurman reckons Apple could offer a similar-quality and slightly smaller monitor at around half the price.
Gurman's comments follow shortly after a rumor that LG was working on a trio of displays based on the current Pro Display XDR and iMac sizes, screens that could end up being branded with the Apple name. The leak pointed to the screens having sizes of 24, 27, and 32 inches, with the latter potentially supporting mini LED backlighting and a 120Hz refresh rate.
The suggestion of a cheaper Apple display is also not a new one. One Bloomberg report from January claimed one such external monitor was on the way, and that it would have a lower price than the Pro Display XDR.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Here's a selection of USB-C monitors are all types of activities.
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/best/usb-c
Bottom line, Apple monitors will always be more expensive because they cannot sell in the same volume as other brands.
- It would receive interference from nearby wifi devices, which would crash the system
- It was slow to wake, or often didn't wake at all - sometimes waking with subtle visual distortions, or again crashing the system
- It has a sub-par viewing angle and excessive light bleed from the edges
- It was freaking expensive for being a dud product and LG made it near-impossible to return it
You can play this game with just about any 3rd party device, cost is irrelevant. Want a good wifi router that plays along with hand-off and homekit? The best device is still the old Apple Airport Extreme from 2013. Want a Network attached storage that won't silently corrupt your Time Machine backup? That's the 2013 Time Capsule. etc. etc.Third point was specific to individual monitors. One of mine had excessive light bleed, and even worse, really bad image retention that bothers me to no end. Enough so that I'm no longer buying LG monitors. Second monitor was perfect from the start. Not sure how pervasive the light bleed and retention issues were/are, but that's something that took a year to appear and LG support wouldn't do anything for me. If my first monitor didn't have the light bleed and image retention (essentially if I'd just gotten two of the same batch as my second monitor) I'd be a life long LG display fan. But I got a dud and support told me to get lost so they lost me forever and I let everyone know to avoid them.
But to your point, the LG 5K is THEE BEST monitor for Macs, bar none. Even the XDR doesn't include a camera or speakers! Issue is they don't support their own products so here I sit waiting for an Apple monitor instead.
No $150 junky smartphones. No $200 netbooks. No $20 MP3 players.
Apple sells premium products with a high gross margin. That's why their market capitalization is enormous. They don't care about having the most market share, they care about sucking up the majority of the profits. They would rather sell one device with a $100 margin versus selling five devices with a $10 margin.
This also drives profit to their Services group. Even today app developers say they make 5-10x from the iOS App Store versus the corresponding Android marketplaces (despite that there is greater unit share in the latter).
There is NOTHING new about this.
Remember the notorious cmdrtaco comment about the iPod?
""No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
iPod ate Nomad's lunch. In fact, iPod OWNED the MP3 player space despite being the premium-priced product. Eventually the iPod touch gained wifi but none of the iPod models were price-capacity value champions. Ever.
And when Apple releases the Apple Car, it's not going to be a Honda FIT. The Honda FIT is a great value but it is not Apple's target market.
Sorry, Apple won't be selling $300 monitors.
Apple either has to re-position its current offering for a different audience at a lower price point, or introduce a professional monitor for the same price (or more expensive if that finds an addressable market) that meets professional requirements.
Of course with mini-LED the biggest issue will disappear.