Apple and LG partner to create LG UltraFine 5K display, with built-in camera, speakers, and USB-C that can be used for charging; display costs $1.3K, ships Dec.
There's a lot to process from today's event … Tyler Lee / Ubergizmo : Apple's New 15-inch MacBook Pro Can Power Four 4K Displays At Once AppAdvice.com Latest : Apple, LG Partner on New UltraFine 4K and 5K Displays Mike Murphy / Quartz : Everything Apple announced at its big Mac event today Tweets: Kevin Dente / @kevindente : The lengths Apple will go to to avoid putting a touch screen on the Mac is impressive.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had just opened the door for this product: the 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro was the first MacBook able to drive a 5K display, creating demand for a monitor no vendor was shipping at a Mac-friendly price. Rather than building one itself, Apple licensed its 5K panel requirements to LG — camera, speakers, and USB-C charging bundled so one cable runs the new MacBook Pros announced at the same event.
The arrangement is a stopgap with a visible shelf life: within two years Apple moved upmarket on its own with the $4,999 Pro Display XDR, and by 2022 it replaced the LG tier entirely with the Studio Display's built-in A13 chip, Center Stage camera, and six-speaker array.
First-order effects
- New MacBook Pro buyers get a single-cable desk setup — display, webcam, audio, and laptop charging over one USB-C connection — at $1,300, the first consumer-priced 5K option tied to the Mac.
- LG gains exclusive manufacturing rights to Apple's 5K spec, effectively becoming Apple's display division for the mainstream Mac line.
Second-order effects
- Demand clearly ran below plan: barely a week after launch Apple cut both UltraFine displays' prices 25% to $974 and $524 through year-end (the late-2016 discount), signaling the $1,300 ask was too high for the audience it was built for.
- Other monitor vendors now face an Apple-endorsed competitor whose differentiators — macOS-tuned color, camera, and power delivery — they cannot match without Apple's cooperation.
Third-order effects
- The episode sets the template Apple repeats across accessories: use a partner to hold the category while first-party silicon matures, then take the product back in-house — exactly the path from the LG units to the Pro Display XDR and Studio Display lines.
- For LG, co-development deals of this kind are double-edged: they bring volume and credibility, but the partner retains the right to reclaim the premium tier once volumes justify it.
The trend: Apple increasingly treats partner-built hardware as a bridge product — filling a category gap quickly while it develops the first-party replacement that eventually displaces the partner.