Availability shrinking for LG UltraFine 5K Display at Apple Stores

In-store pickup results for U.S. online Apple Store

The online Apple Store is no longer offering in-store pickup for the LG UltraFine 5K Display for a large number of outlets around the globe, a possible indication that the screens may be replaced by a new model, potentially even the anticipated Apple-produced displays.

Attempts to check the availability of the LG UltraFine 5K Display for in-store pickup in the United States provides the message "Unavailable for Pickup" in many locations, in AppleInsider's testing. In some areas, such as New York City, there is limited stock available for the display.

The unavailability is unusual as Apple has offered store pickup options for the display since its launch, and highlighted it along with the 2016 MacBook Pro redesign.

The Apple Website in other markets also offers similar notifications that it is unavailable as a pick-up order, with regional online stores for Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Australia. Not all markets are listed as completely unavailable, as pickup is still available in Singapore.

While store pickup is not available in the majority of cases, it does appear that customers are still able to order the monitor for delivery.

Some stores revealed to AppleInsider the LG monitor hasn't been restocked for a while, with multiple locations said to have sold out "weeks ago" with no new shipments. The current belief expressed to AppleInsider is that retail will sell-through its existing stock and won't receive any further shipments.

Typically, a global reduction of availability for a product in the online Apple Store is an indication that something will be changing, such as its removal, a replacement with an Apple-produced version, or an upgraded model. While not completely global, the unavailability for pickup is significant enough to consider there to be something happening soon to the product line.

There isn't an obvious reason for the reduced availability, but considering the LG monitor arrived at a time when Thunderbolt 3-equipped monitors were rare, and that market now has many Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C-compatible monitors, it is less of an issue for consumers wanting such a display for their Mac.

Apple did advise in 2017 it was working on a new "pro display" to go with a new Mac Pro, originally slated for launch in 2018. While the Mac Pro is now believed to be shipping in 2019, it is possible for Apple to ship the display separately, possibly even earlier than the Mac Pro itself.

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24 Comments

Eric_WVGG

said about 5 years ago

If there’s any truth to the rumor of a new Pro-focused Mini, it might make a bit of sense for that Apple Display to come out with it instead of waiting for the 2019 Pro. Many of us MBP users are definitely thirsty for it...

maciekskontakt

said about 5 years ago

It is going to be hard to determine what is "pro" It ain't about resolution and Apple displays have had hard time to match EIZO or NEC reall professional graphics displays. Call it wathever you want, but unless you work in area and you see proper colors and grey levels and non-glare and (no washing on edges after 2 years or turning yellow like in cases like iMac's) then you have some odd definition for "pro display".

jblongz

said about 5 years ago

Kill it already. LG released an alpha rush-to-market product.

Eric_WVGG

said about 5 years ago

Well I’m a developer, so my definition of “Pro” is a crap-ton of Thunderbolt 3 and USB ports like the Mac Pro. Please feel free to quibble from the standards of whatever industry you’re in, but other professionals exist too.

dysamoria

said about 5 years ago

A “professional” Apple display should be color accurate, have calibration facilities, have proper white balance (consistently, across the entire surface, for *many* years), have “a zero dead pixel” manufacturing tolerance, be reflection/glare-reduced AND be a “dock” (port expander for port-starved Macs).

No need for speakers. No need for cutesy features (I don’t know what that might be, but Apple has been putting lots of unnecessary cutesy stuff in iOS... looking at you, Animoji...).

It would be interesting if this new “pro” display was a microLED (nanoLED?) display, using LEDs as pixels (instead of LCD with backlight), but that technology seems to still be in its infancy, and super expensive.

But I’m expecting LG is just iterating this existing display. I expect no pro hardware from Apple this year, mini or otherwise. After the iMac Pro, I’m kind of worried about what a “Mac Mini Pro” would look like. If it’s planned by the iMac Pro team, it likely won’t be cost-effective, which was the whole original point of the mini (and the iMac, right??) and stopped being so, years ago.

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